The Land of Underground Cities - Cappadocia

At mid-century VI BC, Medes Empire falls under Persian domination. From this period seems to date the etymology of the name Cappadocia, which in Persian, Katpatuka means "Land of Beautiful Horses".

Archaeological research has proved that Cappadocia was inhabited since about 10,000 years ago and is considered one of the cradles of mankind.

In the heart of modern Turkey lies a patch of land that seems detached from another world, with strange geological formations similar to the moon surface, with underground labyrinths, fortresses and cities built underground. The underground cities of Cappadociaare are so amazing, that are considered to be the eighth wonder of the world.

Cappadocia region includes Aksaray, Nevsehir, Nigde, Kayseri and Kirsehir provinces and is generally a cooler area than the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts.

Due to the uniqueness of its relief, cultural data and historical context, the area was included in UNESCO World Heritage since 1985.

Over 200 cities have been discovered intact beneath Cappadocia, but researchers are convinced that there are still many waiting to be discovered.

There are numerous underground cities in Cappadocia area, at Kaymakli, at Derinkuyu at Urgup, or Avanos and under other villages. Underground cities are now museums and can be visited on fixed routes, because the tunnels are filled with soil from erosion and subsidence produced throughout the ages.. Even the tunnels are much deeper, reaching 280 m depth, on three levels, most of them can be visited down to 30 m depth.

It is interesting how the corridors and stairs were designed to provide the link between levels. Each level is an independent unit, where can be found the kitchens, dining rooms, rooms for storing food, bedrooms and even cemeteries and prisons. The ventilation of the entire space was made by a central shaft and the water was captured by the inner wells.

Always, domestic animals were kept in the first rooms to avoid long journeys through very narrow tunnels and also to prevent penetration of odors in the rooms where people lived.

Here were built the first monasteries in the world, and the number of places of worship grew over time to more than 200 churches.

Despite the tourist affluence, the region has succeeded to retain an aura of mystery, even for the archaeologists and the modern historians, not mentioning the modern reports which speak about strange events, including magnetic fields which are supposed to have curative properties, or reporting unidentified flying objects.

There is a mystery regarding how the ancient people worked, what tools they used, the time needed to achieve them, how they carried tons of material to the surface without modern means of excavation and transport.

Who built the misterious cities? For what purpose did they live underground? And when were built the underground settlements in Cappadocia?

Historians believe that Phrygians and Hittites, the populations who lived there in the first millennium BC, built some of the underground cities. According to many archaeologists, those settlements were intended to serve as underground shelter against invasion of enemies.

In the underground city there is an unusual security system made of thousand of stone doors in the form of wheels that could be moved only by one person and only ftom one part, only from the inside. The stones have diameters between one and two meters and can be rolled only from inside, so the invaders can not penetrate. Therefore they were hiding from something or someone.

Because the stone can not be carbon dated, it is very difficult to determine the age of those underground homes. Remain the legemds and the old religious tradition. It is known that Cappadocia was part of the Zoroastrian empire, one of the oldest religious tradition on earth. Could thosee homes be built underground by followers to the indication of their religious leader, Ahura Mazda, to serve as shelters in an ice age heavy winter? Last ice age ended 10,000 years ago. Therefore, according to the legend, underground cities of Cappadocia might be much older than was previously thought.

According to ancient sacred texts, Ahura Mazda flew through the sky in a divine chariot and was waging war on Angra Mainyu, his eternal enemy, the god of darkness, the personification of evil, bringer of death and disease. Angra Mainyu introduced the frost in winter, heat in summer, the entire range of diseases and other ills.

The Holy Spirit assists Ahura Mazda, The Wise Lord, to defeat the dark forces in this cosmic war. There are researchers who believe that these extraterrestrial forces were two forces which fought for control of land and its resources. They had the ability to fly using machines which we find in ancient cultures worldwide. The same researchers argue that these struggles have resulted in a kind of bombardment between alien forces in conflict. It is possible that the first caves from Cappadocia were used as shelters against those bombings, as shelters against a flying enemy, for the speed of travel in an aircraft does not allow the observation of the ventilation shafts by those who handle the flying devices. If the enemy would have been one who came riding (Romans, Arabs, etc.) would not have been easy for them to stifle everyone inside, just by closing the ventilation shafts?

Therefore were the caves built by people using extraterrestrial machines to serve as shelter in the last ice age and to avoid becoming victims of an alien war coming from the sky? Could be Ahura Mazda one of those "gods" aliens of antiquity that gave people the knowledge and technology to protect them from threats from outside and help them to survive?

Nowadays Turkey has increasingly exploited the tourist potential of this area for twenty years. Tourists can live in hotels carved into the rock, make trips on horseback, or marry while flying in a balloon over the underground cities. If they want to avoid extreme heat, the indicated period to vizit Cappadocia is from April to mid-June or in September and October.

But even after a long journey, Cappadocia remains as enigmatic as before visiting it. Will we ever be able to decipher that mystery?