UNDERGROUND CİTİES The first brain surgery in the world  was performed here in Aşıklıhöyük When human beings first appeared in the world, they lived in caves. If you have the desire to have the pirivilage of seeing undergroud cities and homes, and explore the lifestyles ten thousand years ago, you should visit Aksaray, the pearl of Cappadocia. There are still some underground cities which are not discovered wholly yet. The latest underground city which was discovered in 2007 is in Gaziemir, Güzelyurt.

 

 

 

                     UNDERGROUND CİTİES: One of Cappadocia's important undergound cities, Gaziemir in Güzelyurt. It was opened to tourists on 24.06.2007. Aksaray Governor Sebati BUYURAN, Garrison Commander Ali İNLEK, Chief of Police Department Sabri YAKAR and many guests attended the opennig ceremony of the underground city. Excavation chairman Güzin KARAKOY who brought the underground city into tourisim, said they unearthed the city, which could not have been uncovered for many years, in six months with a 25. person excavation team. KARAKOY said they had started working in four cave entrances and reached new sections as they had clear out the soil.

 

                       Gaziemir underground city dates back to the Byzantine period. KARAKOY said it is larger than similar cities in Aksaray and made up of a bath, churches, animal shelters, depots, small and big cookers and living spaces.

 

                       " While other underground cities are high enough just for a normal person to walk through the ceilling of this city is higher. During our excavation work, we found camel bones. This proves the city's big size. The width of joint use areas and the height of the corridor opening to big rooms, is appropriate for big size animals like camels," said KARAKOY.

 

                         Governor BUYURAN said the Cappadocia region had an important richness. " We have worked from the Neolithic period, Roman,Byzantium, Seljuk and Ottoman periods. But we have a lot of work to do to present this richness  to tourists. One of them was to open Gaziemir underground city to tourists and we did it today."

 

                       Today first visitors of the underground cirty were a 10-person tourist group including German, French, Hungarian, Chinese and Japanese tourists, KARAKOY introduced the underground city to the tourist group.

 

                      Certainly the most interesting features of the Cappadocia area are the underground cities founded within. The first inhabitans of Cappadocia area have opened deep cavities within the volcanic rocks due to escape from the attacks of the wild animals and hard winter conditions and they have enlarged these cavities according to their daily needs, they opened new cavities and created the underground cities connecting these cavities with tunnel and labrinths. Later the underground cities were the place of the hiding of the first christians who escaped from the persecution of the Roman soldiers and were enlarged to able when were necessary for the living of the people has been attached. When there wasn't any danger the poople living on the ground in case of the danger have hidden in the underground cities. For this reason all the homes at that time were connected to the underground cities with a tunnel.

 

                  In all of the underground cities there are ventilation chimneys reaching place by place to a depth of 80 and until the underground waters. This chimneys were opened due to meet the need of both the ventilation and water. Within the cities that are tepid in winters and cool  in summers. There are kitchens, cribs, wine houses, depots for cereals, meeting saloons, toilets shortly every kind of linig space necessary for living. Within all the cities there are locking stones which can be opened and closed only from inside against to the threats which may come from outside.

 

               The oldest written source abot underground cities is the  Anabasis named book of xenophon (B.C.4) . In the book is mentioned that the people living in Anatolia have caved their hauses underground and that the hauses are connected to each other with holes.

 

               Underground cities in Aksaray:

 

 Güzelyurt District Center ( four underground cities ) - Opened

 Gaziemir (Yakacık )  underground city- Opened

 Gülağaç (Çukurören ) underground city

 Yalman underground city

 Saratlı - Gülağaç underground city - Opened

 Ozancık-Ersele underground city - Opened

 Büyük Pörnekler - Kemer underground city

 Topakkaya-Urumdüğün underground city

 Eşmekaya-Erdoğdu underground city

 

Saratlı Underground city:

 

               Saratlı, rich in cultural assets, has still preserved irs traditional values . The culture of being a dervish of the Bektaşi order can be deemed as one of them.

 

               The personnel and administrators of Municipality of Saratlı 50 km away Nevşehir Airport hawe been active in order to improve tourism in the region.

 

                Manayır Tumulus  located on the ancient routes lest its visitors go back to the grief of that time with its monuments constructed by piling up stones and soil over burail chambers

 

               Saratlı owes its magic to Mount Hasan which attracts a great deal of of travelers with its snowy peak, grand pose you come across suddenly, an ancient city of Viransehir. Mount Hasan with its skiing facilities, situad in the middle of a plain with its 3268 meters of magnificence tempts you to explore . It is nearly impossible to resist this invitation. However, even only sightseeing, it is a great pleasure. As soon as the lights start to perform their show you  enjoy exploring your inner world, holding your breath. However, when the lights go off and the mountain turns into a silhouette, you set out to eagerly wait to have the chance to watch the sunset.

 

            The underground city of Kırkgöz about 2 km east of Christian Pilgrim Road and established on a gravy rock, hid and protected Christian sheltering there for ages.

 

             There is a bewitchinig region in the triangle of the Toros Mountains, Malatya and Tuz Lake with its fairy chimneys, underground cities, houses carved out of rock and churches adorned with its frescos. A region where thousands of people tour all four seasons of the year, as they tour it, they feel a desire to see it again. Persians called this Central Anatolian plateu, on which speedy horses known by every one in Anatolia and running like the wind as "Katpatouka" . During the years passing  intervening, it protected both its significance as a center of main trade and migration roads and became: Capadoccia

 

              Nevşehir, Niğde and Aksaray are known as the important cities of Capadoccia .One must see the open air museums of Ürgüp and Göreme and the churches carved into rosks in the hillsides, the slopes of the Melendiz Stream comig down to ıhlara Valley. The underground city of Kırkgöz in Saratlı Town located at the 22nd km turnoff of the Aksaray-Nevşehir highway and Malayır Tumulus and Tepesidelikhan ruins are the places which should not be ignored by visitors since the lovers of Cappadoccia cannot feel at ease unless they discover the mystery in Saratlı.

 

            We become aware of the fact that the Ruin of Tepesidelikhan hosted the tired travelers of a course belonging to more ancient times when ruin of Tepesidelikhan whispers it into our ears.

 

              In “Kemer” underground city, that has been named so because the main enterances have been cut as arches, during the digging and cleaning work, a sketch drawing on a stone which belongs to an underground city has been found in a field near the working area in August, 2007. The triple corridor enterance of the underground city is obvious on the sketch and this enterance brought into open by digging and cleaning work.

Up to the experts working on the digging area, this is the first time a sketch of an underground city has been found, and the sketch is still analysing. On the sketch, all the places are obviously seen. Water pits, vent holes, living places and corridors have been fixed. Three corridors which have an arch-shaped enterance on the digging and cleaning area are seen on the sketch, and this is interpreted as the accuracy of the sketch. This main enterance corridor on the sketch is 3 meters 10 cm long. This giant corridor points to the existence of a large underground bazaar. By the help of the evidence up to now, it has been discovered that the underground city was a wealthy city that was used on Rome and Byzantine periods and people started to settle down there from Hellenistic period.

 There are both up and down settlement places on the working area. A church which had been there 40  or 50 years ago from that time  was knocked down and the mortar from the church building was used for the settlement of the city. By the help of the mosaic left from the Byzantine, we see that the place has very wealthy architecture. In the underground city, there is so much paddling and the high-quality marble pieces show that here is a wealthy settlement. A newly found icon piece displays the existence of an underground bazaar. Moreover, all the people around there say that there is a connection way to the “Ozancık” underground city where is 10 km far from Kemer underground city. The size of the sketch shows that this idea may be true. 

 

 

Municipality of Saratlı  :

Gülağaç                      AKSARAY

Tel:  +90 (0) 382 433 42 91

Fax: +90(0) 382 433 42 92

 

 

   

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