The Forces That Shape The Earth || Fantastic Conical Hills In Central Turkey Have Been Made Even More Extraordinary By Local Cave Dwellers

Cappadocia's Cones Facts.

HOMES CUT INTO THE ROCK

Until well into the 20th Century, the name Cappadocia meant little to most of the Western World. It was know, perhaps hazily, as a place in Asia Minor that was mentioned in the Bible- St Peter's first letter is addressed to the Cappadocians. Yet  today, the part of central Turkey around Urgup and Goreme is known to travellers the world over for a landscape that, stunning in itself, also has an unexpected twist.

In the most weird of fairy-tail landscapes, cones and pyramids of rock rise from barren valleys. Some taper smoothly to summits as high as 160ft(50m). Others are rugged and irregular, as though carelessly fashioned or abandoned before they were finished. There are pillars and rocky outcrops, too, of every imaginable shape and size. A magical colour scheme- rich cream, pink, red, pale blue or grey- makes the atmosphere even more unreal. 

To add to the landscape's outlandishness, cones and rocks here and there are capped with slabs or bobbles of darker stone. Some look like oddly shaped mushrooms, while others resemble cloaked figures wearing hats tilted at jaunty angles. In some places, cones and rock are scattered in a haphazard way over the valley floors, elsewhere, cones stretch away in serried ranks. Then it is easy to understand the mythical explanation of their origins- besieged by a marauding army, the people prayed to Allah, who turned their attackers to stone.

Cappadocia's other worldly rock sculptures stand on a plateau dominated by the extinct volcano, Erciyas Dagi. This 12,848 ft mountain was the source of the cones' building material. Millions of years agon it erupted violently, hurling out ash that fell over a wide area. The ash cooled and hardened to form a thick mantle of tuff, a white rock soft enough to be worked with a knife. Since then the tuff has been attacked by rain, snow and wind. Rainwater run off has cut twisting valleys and ravines, and has then eaten away at their sides to leave the conical hills and other rock formation.

The volcano's eruptions produced some layers of tuff so hot that they welded as they landed, forming stronger layers of rock, which are mostly darker in colour. As gullies have been cut down through these layers, remnant caps and blocks of the strong dark tuff have survived on top of individual cones, protecting the softer tuff below and creating some of the more bizarre shapes.

Human Touch

As if the landscape were not improbable enough, a further surprise is in store for the visitor. The conical hills, and the cliffs of the valley sides, have doors and widows cut into them.

Until well into the 20th century, people made their homes in rooms hollowed out of the cones and cliffs. The idea could have started as early as 4000 BC, with people enlarging natural caves and then tunnelling further into the soft rock. In about 2000 BC, waves of Hittites appeared from the east. It could have been then that the cave dwellers started to burrow downwards, digging underground refuges that later develop into vast subterranean cities.

Christianity spread quickly to this upland plateau, and the solitude of the valleys with their strange conical hills attracted men and women who wanted to follow the contemplative life. By the end of the 4th century small groups of monks and nuns were creating monasteries and convents in the cones and cliffs, with cells, kitchens and refectories.

Far more remarkable than the monks' homes, however, are the 400 or so richly decorated churches in the area. Between the 7th and 12th centuries, monks hewed out churches complete with pillars, crypts and domes. Using strongly coloured pigments, they covered the walls with frescoes whose colours are still bright. A fresco in one of the Goreme Valley churches show scenes from the New Testament, such as the Flight into Egypt.

The conical hills and their decorated churches attract large numbers of tourists, and with them comes wear and tear on the landscape and frescoes. Landslides can carry away centuries old frescoes, for the weathering that created the cones is a continuous process. But while existing formations are being whittled away, new ones are forming.