The desert outside Dubai is a different country before sunrise-cool, hushed, and star-pinned, with the city a faint glow on the horizon like a promise held in reserve. In that hour, when the sand is the color of ash and the wind hasn't decided what kind of day it wants to be, a hot air balloon looks improbable. A heap of silk one minute, then a living thing the next-rippling, billowing, throbbing as flames thrum into its belly. People speak quietly at the launch site, not out of obligation but instinct, the way voices drop in cathedrals. The burners roar, a sound like the elementals celebrating, and the envelope rises.
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Then, with a shrug of the ground and a breath you didn't realize you were holding, you leave.
Lift-off is not a takeoff so much as a loosening. There's no thrust against your back, no jolt of acceleration. One moment you are in the gravity of everyday life-footprints, tire tracks, the marks of plans and schedules-and the next you are in the morning calm, suspended on an invisible ladder. Hot air balloon Dubai wind conditions . The basket floor vibrates with a memory of flame, the woven sides creak, and you ascend through air that has been holding its breath for hours. The pilot adds a touch of heat and the balloon answers, obedient without haste, as if the sky and the balloon have agreed to move together only as quickly as the day unfolds.
From even a few hundred feet up, the dunes gather into a language. Their curves and crests stop being decorative and start telling stories-of nights the wind wrote in long cursive, of corners where it paused and then decided to go on.
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The balloon's shadow follows you, perfectly dark and perfectly still, skimming across the ripples like a low-lidded eye. In that shadow, a camel train becomes a moving sketch, its gait unhurried, each hoofprint the size of a thought. You begin to notice traces you would miss on the ground: the braided thread of a fox's path, the tight dotted line where a lizard scribbled and then darted under a shrub, the scatter of hoof marks from oryx or gazelles that turned the night into geometry.
As the horizon bleaches from blueberry to peach, the Hajar Mountains cut a ragged inked edge against the brightening east. The first seam of orange breaks, and the entire desert becomes a slow revelation. The light arrives in kindness, laying a hand on every surface in turn: a ridge explodes into detail, a pocket of shadow deepens and then thins, and the frayed grasses wear halos. Even the silence tastes different. For a while there's only the occasional breath of the burner and the muted rasp of wicker as someone shifts their stance. Voices float like bubbles and pop without echo. The pilot watches thin streamers tied to the basket stir or still, reads the color and curl of the sand for clues, and toys with altitude to find a breeze you cannot feel but can trust.
In this high hush, Dubai is not absent; it's simply held at arm's length. On a clear morning, the city spines the far horizon-glass and steel rearranging the sky, the sun snagging early on the edges of towers. There's a thrill in that juxtaposition, an algebra of ambition set against the patient arithmetic of dunes. You can see where the roads arrive and pretend to be permanent. From above, the desert makes them look like declarations written in pencil.
People sometimes speak of balloons as romantic because they drift and because they do not insist. That's only partly true. There's romance, yes, in the hush and in the shared astonishment of strangers pointing at the same tilt of light. But there's also the frank practical work of it-the pilot's hand on a burner lever, the way you rise a few meters and discover a private current, a quiet lane in the sky. Up here you're a passenger on the simplest kind of ship, one that moves because hot air is lighter than cold, because the morning is patient, because someone learned to ride what cannot be seen. It is humbling. It is also, in a city that is always negotiating with time, a deliberate refusal to hurry.
Sometimes, if you're lucky, a falconer will share the basket, the bird a small sovereign on a leather glove. The falcon's eye is a keyhole to another intensity. When the hood comes off, it reads the world in vectors and velocities, not photographs. Its presence folds centuries into the flight: the old desert crafts-tracking, waiting, honoring the rhythms of animals and wind-become part of the morning's grammar. Whether or not the bird is there, that sense of inheritance is hard to ignore. Out here, you can feel the thin thread that pulls modern Dubai back through tents and caravans and campfires into something older than any skyline.
As the sun clears the shoulder of the mountains, the air warms and the day begins to take a position. Heat loosens the ground's grip on scent; the faint sweetness of dry grass and the mineral breath of sand rise. The calm persists, but it gets busier: birds pulse between acacias, a beetle engraves its intention on a slope, and even the balloon seems to lean toward its landing. Descents, like ascents, don't so much happen as accumulate. The pilot judges a patch of open sand, maybe a flat between two long ridges, and lowers you as if returning a borrowed bowl very carefully to the shelf. Sometimes the basket will kiss the ground and skitter a few meters, the drag of wicker on sand making a soft hush, and then everything is still again.
Back on earth, the morning has tilled itself into gold. The balloon deflates with a slow exhale, folding in on color, going from creature to cloth. People who were strangers an hour earlier exchange photos and little declarations-“I didn't know it would be so quiet,” or, “I didn't think the city could look that far away.”
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There might be coffee, the familiar burn and bitterness both more pronounced in the clean air.
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The breeze, such as it is, is only a brush of coolness now, already thinking about noon.
Driving back toward Dubai, towers grow like a time-lapse; the highway fills with errands; the day gets louder in obvious ways. Yet something of the morning's calm keeps its seat. Maybe it's the knowledge that a city famed for speed allows, at its fringe, a ritual of slowness. Maybe it's the way the flight organized your attention: first to breath and flame, then to horizon and light, then to the signatures of other lives printed softly on the sand. Or perhaps it's simpler-the realization that for an hour you were carried by nothing more than air made warm, by a machine elegant enough to have very few moving parts, across a landscape old enough to ignore the noise you brought with you.
Hot air balloon, Dubai, morning calm-three nouns and a mood. Together, they describe a way to meet the day without wrestling it, to watch it assemble itself from blue to gold while the earth rewrites itself in ripples below. It is a quiet conversation with place and time. It's a reminder that even in a city built on speed and spectacle, there is still a moment each day when the world is content to hold still and let you rise.
About Arabian Desert
Desert located in Western Asia
This article is about the desert in the Arabian Peninsula. For the Red Sea Hills/Arabian Desert in Northeast Africa, see Eastern Desert. For the desert in Syria, Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia, see Syrian Desert.
Arabian Desert ٱلصَّحْرَاء ٱلْعَرَبِيَّة
Desert near Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Map of the Arabian Desert ecoregion
Ecology
Realm
Palearctic
Biome
deserts and xeric shrublands
Borders
List
Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert
Mesopotamian shrub desert
Middle East steppe
North Saharan steppe and woodlands
Persian Gulf desert and semi-desert
Red Sea Nubo-Sindian tropical desert and semi-desert
Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh
Geography
Area
1,855,470[1] km2 (716,400 mi2)
Countries
List
Saudi Arabia
Iraq
Jordan
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
United Arab Emirates
Iran (khuzestan)
Yemen
Egypt (Sinai)
Conservation
Conservation status
critical/endangered[2]
Protected
4.368%[1]
The Arabian Desert (Arabic: ٱلصَّحْرَاء ٱلْعَرَبِيَّة) is a vast desert wilderness in West Asia that occupies almost the entire Arabian Peninsula with an area of 2,330,000 square kilometers (900,000 sq mi).[3] It stretches from Yemen to the Persian Gulf and Oman to Jordan and Iraq. It is the fourth largest desert in the world and the largest in Asia. At its center is Ar-Rub' al-Khali (The Empty Quarter), one of the largest continuous bodies of sand in the world. It is an extension of the Sahara Desert.[4]
Gazelles, oryx, sand cats, and spiny-tailed lizards are just some of the desert-adapted species that survive in this extreme environment, which features everything from red dunes to deadly quicksand. The climate is mostly dry (the major part receives around 100 mm (3.9 in) of rain per year, but some very rare places receive as little as 50 mm), and temperatures oscillate between very high heat and seasonal night time freezes. It is part of the deserts and xeric shrublands biome and lie in biogeographical realms of the Palearctic (northern part) and Afrotropical (southern part).
The Arabian Desert ecoregion has little biodiversity, although a few endemic plants grow here. Many species, such as the striped hyena, jackal and honey badger, have died out as a result of hunting, habitat destruction, overgrazing by livestock, off-road driving, and human encroachment on their habitat. Other species, such as the Arabian sand gazelle, have been successfully re-introduced and are protected at reserves.
Geography
[edit]
A satellite image of the Arabian Desert by NASA World Wind
The desert lies mostly in Saudi Arabia and covers most of the country. It extends into neighboring southern Iraq, southern Jordan, central Qatar, most of the Abu Dhabi emirate in the United Arab Emirates, western Oman, and northeastern Yemen. The ecoregion also includes most of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and the adjacent Negev desert in southern Israel.[1]
The Rub' al-Khali desert is a sedimentary basin stretching along a south-west to north-east axis across the Arabian Shelf.[5] At an altitude of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), rock landscapes yield to the Rub' al-Khali, a vast stretch of sand whose extreme southern point crosses the center of Yemen. The sand overlies gravel or gypsum plains and the dunes reach maximum heights of up to 250 m (820 ft). The sands are predominantly silicates, composed of 80 to 90% quartz and the remainder feldspar, whose iron oxide-coated grains color the sands orange, purple, and red.
A corridor of sandy terrain known as the Ad-Dahna desert connects the An-Nafud desert (65,000 km2 or 40,389 square miles) in the north of Saudi Arabia to the Rub' al-Khali in the south-east.[citation needed] The Tuwaiq escarpment is an 800 km (500 mi) arc that includes limestone cliffs, plateaus, and canyons.[citation needed] There are brackish salt flats, including the quicksands of Umm al Samim.[2] The Sharqiya Sands, formerly known as Wahiba Sands of Oman are an isolated sand sea bordering the east coast.[6][7]
Climate
[edit]
The Arabian Desert has a subtropical, hot desert climate, similar to the climate of the Sahara Desert (the world's largest hot desert). The Arabian Desert is actually an extension of the Sahara Desert over the Arabian peninsula.
The climate is mainly dry. Most areas get around 100 mm (3.9 in) of rain per year. Unlike the Sahara Desert—more than half of which is hyperarid (having rainfall of less than 50 mm (2.0 in) per year)—the Arabian Desert has only a few hyperarid areas. These rare driest areas may get only 30 to 40 mm (1.6 in) of rain per year.
The Arabian Desert’s sunshine duration index is very high by global standards: between 2,900 hours (66.2% of daylight hours) and 3,600 hours (82.1% of daylight hours), but typically around 3,400 hours (77.6% of daylight hours). Thus clear-sky conditions with plenty of sunshine prevail over the region throughout the year, and cloudy periods are infrequent. Visibility at ground level is relatively low, despite the brightness of the sun and moon, because of dust and humidity.
Temperatures remain high year round. In the summer, in low-lying areas, average high temperatures are generally over 40 °C (104 °F). In extremely low-lying areas, especially along the Persian Gulf (near sea level), summer temperatures can reach 48 °C (118 °F). Average low temperatures in summer are typically over 20 °C (68 °F) and in the south can sometimes exceed 30 °C (86 °F). Record high temperatures above 50 °C (122 °F) have been reached in many areas of the desert, partly because its overall elevation is relatively low. [citation needed]
Flora and fauna
[edit]
The Arabian Desert ecoregion has about 900 species of plants.[8] The Rub'al-Khali has very limited floristic diversity. There are only 37 plant species, 20 recorded in the main body of the sands and 17 around the outer margins. Of these 37 species, one or two are endemic. Vegetation is very diffuse but fairly evenly distributed, with some interruptions of near sterile dunes.[2] Some typical plants are Calligonum crinitum on dune slopes, Cornulaca arabica (saltbush), Salsola stocksii (saltbush), and Cyperus conglomeratus. Other widespread species are Dipterygium glaucum, Limeum arabicum, and Zygophyllum mandavillei. Very few trees are found except at the outer margin (typically Acacia ehrenbergiana and Prosopis cineraria). Other species are a woody perennial Calligonum comosum, and annual herbs such as Danthonia forskallii.[2]
There are 102 native species of mammals.[8] Native mammals include the Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), sand gazelle (Gazella marica), mountain gazelle (G. gazella), Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana), Arabian wolf (Canis lupus arabs), striped hyaena (Hyaena hyaena), caracal (Caracal caracal), sand cat (Felis margarita), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and Cape hare (Lepus capensis).[2] The Asiatic cheetah[9] and Asiatic lion[10] used to live in the Arabian Desert. The ecoregion is home to 310 bird species.[8]
People
[edit]
The area is home to several different cultures, languages, and peoples, with Islam as the predominant faith. The major ethnic group in the region is the Arabs, whose primary language is Arabic.
In the center of the desert lies Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, with more than 7 million inhabitants.[11] Other large cities, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Kuwait City, lie on the coast of the Persian Gulf.
Natural resources
[edit]
Natural resources available in the Arabian Desert include oil, natural gas, phosphates, and sulfur.[citation needed]
Conservation and threats
[edit]
Threats to the ecoregion include overgrazing by livestock and feral camels and goats, wildlife poaching, and damage to vegetation by off-road driving.[2]
The conservation status of the desert is critical/endangered. In the UAE, the sand gazelle and Arabian oryx are threatened, and honey badgers, jackals, and striped hyaenas already extirpated.[2]
Protected areas
[edit]
4.37% of the ecoregion is in protected areas.[1]
Saudi Arabia has established a system of reserves overseen by the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD).[2]
Harrat al-Harrah Reserve (12,150 km2), established in 1987, is on the border with Jordan and Iraq, and protects a portion of the stony basaltic Harrat al-Sham desert. The reserve includes rough terrain of black basaltic boulders and extinct volcanic cones from the middle Miocene. It provides habitat to over 250 species of plants, 50 species of birds, and 22 mammal species.[2]
'Uruq Bani Ma'arid Reserve (12,000 km2) is on the western edge of the Rub’ al-Khali. Arabian oryx and sand gazelle were reintroduced to the reserve in 1995.
Ibex Reserve (200 km2) is south of Riyadh. It protects Nubian ibex and a reintroduced population of mountain gazelle.[2]
Al-Tabayq Special Nature Reserve is in northern Saudi Arabia, and protects a population of Nubian ibex.[2]
Protected areas in the United Arab Emirates include Al Houbara Protected Area (2492.0 km2), Al Ghadha Protected Area (1087.51 km2), Arabian Oryx Protected Area (5974.47 km2), Ramlah Protected Area (544.44 km2), and Al Beda'a Protected Area (417.0 km2).[12]
See also
[edit]
Saudi Arabia portal
ʿĀd
Iram of the Pillars
References
[edit]
^ abcd"Arabian Desert and East Sahero-Arabian xeric shrublands". Digital Observatory of Protected Areas. Accessed 19 December 2022. [1]
^ abcdefghijk
"Arabian Desert". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.
^"Sharqiya (Wahiba) Sands, Oman - Travel Guide, Info & Bookings – Lonely Planet". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
^ abcHoekstra JM, Molnar JL, Jennings M, Revenga C, Spalding MD, Boucher TM, Robertson JC, Heibel TJ, Ellison K (2010) The Atlas of Global Conservation: Changes, Challenges, and Opportunities to Make a Difference (ed. Molnar JL). Berkeley: University of California Press.
^Harrison, D. L. (1968). "Genus Acinonyx Brookes, 1828" (PDF). The mammals of Arabia. Volume II: Carnivora, Artiodactyla, Hyracoidea. London: Ernest Benn Limited. pp. 308–313.
^Heptner, V. G.; Sludskii, A. A. (1992) [1972]. "Lion". Mlekopitajuščie Sovetskogo Soiuza. Moskva: Vysšaia Škola [Mammals of the Soviet Union, Volume II, Part 2]. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution and the National Science Foundation. pp. 83–95. ISBN 978-90-04-08876-4.
^"هيئة تطوير مدينة الرياض توافق على طلبات مطورين لإنشاء 4 مشاريع سياحية وترفيهية" (in Arabic). April 4, 2019. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
^UNEP-WCMC (2020). Protected Area Profile for United Arab Emirates from the World Database of Protected Areas, November 2020. Available at: www.protectedplanet.net
External links
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arabian Desert.
"Arabian Desert". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.
Arabian Desert (DOPA)
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About Cappadocia
Historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey
For other uses, see Cappadocia (disambiguation) and Cappadocian (disambiguation).
Place in Katpatuka
Cappadocia
Ancient region of Central Anatolia Region, Turkey
Clockwise from top: Ortahisar Castle, View of Uçhisar Castle, Mount Erciyes, Rose Valley, Ihlara Valley, Göreme Open Air Museum, Aerial view over Cappadocia
Cappadocia among the classical regions of Anatolia (Asia Minor)
Persian satrapy
Katpatuka
Roman province
Cappadocia
Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Interactive map of Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia
Includes
Göreme National Park, Kaymakli Underground City, Derinkuyu underground city
Criteria
Cultural: i, iii, v; Natural: vii
Reference
357
Inscription
1985 (9th Session)
Area
9,883.81 ha
Cappadocia (/kæpəˈdoʊʃəˌ-ˈdoʊkiə/; Turkish: Kapadokya, from Greek: Καππαδοκία) is a historical region in Central Anatolia region, Turkey. It is largely in the provinces of Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. Today, the touristic Cappadocia Region is located in Nevşehir province.
According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revolt (499 BC), the Cappadocians were reported as occupying a region from the Taurus Mountains to the vicinity of the Euxine (Black Sea).[1] Cappadocia, in this sense, was bounded in the south by the chain of mountains that separate it from Cilicia, to the east by the upper Euphrates, to the north by the Pontus, and to the west by Lycaonia and eastern Galatia.[2]
The name, traditionally used in Christian sources throughout history, continues in use as an international tourism concept to define a region of exceptional natural wonders, in particular characterized by fairy chimneys,[3] in addition to its religious heritage of being a centre of early Christian learning, evidenced by hundreds of churches and monasteries (such as those of Göreme and Ihlara), as well as underground cities that were dug to offer protection during periods of persecution.[4][5]
Etymology
[edit]
The facade of an ancient church called Açık Saray, literally meaning "Open Palace", carved into the valley walls in Gülşehir, Cappadocia.
The earliest record of the name of Cappadocia (/kæpəˈdoʊʃəˌ-ˈdoʊkiə/; Turkish: Kapadokya; Ancient Greek: Καππαδοκία, romanized: Kappadokía, Classical Syriac: ܩܦܘܕܩܝܐ, romanized: Kəp̄uḏoqyā, from Old Persian: 𐎣𐎫𐎱𐎬𐎢𐎣Katpatuka; Hittite: 𒅗𒋫𒁉𒁕, romanized: Katapeda; Armenian: Կապադովկիա,, romanized: Kapadovkia) dates from the late sixth century BC, when it appears in the trilingual inscriptions of two early Achaemenid emperors, Darius the Great and Xerxes I, as one of the countries (Old Persian dahyu-). In these lists of countries, the Old Persian name is Katpatuka. It was proposed that Kat-patuka came from the Luwian language, meaning "Low Country".[6]
Subsequent research suggests that the adverb katta meaning 'down, below' is exclusively Hittite, while its Luwian equivalent is zanta.[7] Therefore, the recent modification of this proposal operates with the Hittite katta peda-, literally "place below" as a starting point for the development of the toponym Cappadocia.[8]
The earlier derivation from Iranian Hu-apa-dahyu 'Land of good horses' can hardly be reconciled with the phonetic shape of Kat-patuka. Several other etymologies have also been offered in the past.[9]
Herodotus wrote that the name of the Cappadocians was applied to them by the Persians, while they were termed by the Greeks "White Syrians" (Leucosyri),[10] who were most probably descendants of the Hittites.[11] One of the Cappadocian tribes he mentions is the Moschoi, associated by Flavius Josephus with the biblical figure Meshech, son of Japheth: "and the Mosocheni were founded by Mosoch; now they are Cappadocians". AotJ I:6.[citation needed]
A fresco of Christ Pantocrator on the ceiling of Karanlık Kilise Churches of Göreme.
Cappadocia appears in the biblical account given in the book of Acts 2:9. The Cappadocians were named as one group (among "Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia")[12] hearing the Gospel account from Galileans in their own language on the day of Pentecost shortly after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:5 states "Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven," seeming to suggest that some of the Cappadocians were Jews, or part of the diaspora of Jews present in Jerusalem at the time.[12]
The region is mentioned in the Jewish Mishnah, in Ketubot 13:11, and in several places in the Talmud, including Yevamot 121a, Hullin 47b.[13]
Under the later kings of the Persian Empire, the Cappadocians were divided into two satrapies, or governments, with one comprising the central and inland portion, to which the name of Cappadocia continued to be applied by Greek geographers, while the other was called Pontus. This division had already come about before the time of Xenophon. As after the fall of the Persian government the two provinces continued to be separate, the distinction was perpetuated, and the name Cappadocia came to be restricted to the inland province (sometimes called Great Cappadocia), which alone will be the focus of this article.[14]
The kingdom of Cappadocia still existed in the time of Strabo (c. 64 BC – c. AD 24) as a nominally independent state. Cilicia was the name given to the district in which Caesarea, the capital of the whole country, was situated. The only two cities of Cappadocia considered by Strabo to deserve that appellation were Caesarea (originally known as Mazaca) and Tyana, not far from the foot of the Taurus.[15]
Geography and climate
[edit]
Fairy chimneys in Uçhisar, Cappadocia.
Cappadocia lies in central Anatolia, in the heartland of what is now Turkey. The relief consists of a high plateau over 1,000 m in altitude that is pierced by volcanic peaks, with Mount Erciyes (ancient Argaeus) near Kayseri (ancient Caesarea) being the tallest at 3,916 m. The boundaries of historical Cappadocia are vague, particularly towards the west.[16]
To the south, the Taurus Mountains form the boundary with Cilicia and separate Cappadocia from the Mediterranean Sea. To the west, Cappadocia is bounded by the historical regions of Lycaonia to the southwest, and Galatia to the northwest. Due to its inland location and high altitude, Cappadocia has a markedly continental climate, with hot dry summers and cold snowy winters.[17] Rainfall is sparse and the region is largely semi-arid.[citation needed]
Cappadocia contained the source of the Sarus and Pyramus rivers, and the middle course of the Halys river, and the tributary of the Euphrates, later called Tokhma Su. As no one of these rivers was navigable or served to fertilize the lands along its course, none has much importance in the history of the province.[15]
Geology
[edit]
Ignimbrites of Miocene age are present within the area. The distinctive landscape of Cappadocia was formed through the erosion of thick volcanic deposits created by ancient eruptions of Mount Erciyes, Mount Hasan, and Göllüdağ. Over millions of years, wind and water erosion shaped these soft volcanic rocks into the region’s characteristic fairy chimneys and rock formations.
Prominent rock formations such as Ortahisar and Uçhisar are composed of harder volcanic rock layers, which were more resistant to erosion than the surrounding softer deposits. As a result, these formations remained elevated over time and were later adapted for the construction of rock-cut castles and settlements.
IUGS geological heritage site
[edit]
In respect of the 'voluminous eruption deposits in a fluvio-lacustrine sequence with 'fairy-chimney' development produced by uplift and erosion', the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) included 'The Miocene Cappadocian ignimbrites sequence' in its assemblage of 100 'geological heritage sites' around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organisation defines an IUGS Geological Heritage Site as 'a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history.'[18]
History
[edit]
Ancient history
[edit]
See also: Cappadocia (satrapy) and List of rulers of Cappadocia
Achaemenid Cappadocia
A Cappadocian soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 470 BC. Xerxes I tomb relief.
The location of Achaemenid Cappadocia.[19]
Cappadocia was known as Hatti in the late Bronze Age, and was the homeland of the Hittite power centred at Hattusa. After the fall of the Hittite Empire, with the decline of the Syro-Cappadocians (Mushki) after their defeat by the Lydian king Croesus in the 6th century BC, Cappadocia was ruled by a sort of feudal aristocracy, dwelling in strong castles and keeping the peasants in a servile condition, which later made them apt to foreign slavery. It was included in the third Persian satrapy in the division established by Darius but continued to be governed by rulers of its own, none apparently supreme over the whole country and all more or less tributaries of the Great King.[15][20]
Kingdom of Cappadocia
[edit]
Main article: Kingdom of Cappadocia
After ending the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great tried to rule the area through one of his military commanders. But Ariarathes, previously satrap of the region, declared himself king of the Cappadocians. As Ariarathes I (332–322 BC), he was a successful ruler, and he extended the borders of the Cappadocian Kingdom as far as to the Black Sea. The kingdom of Cappadocia lived in peace until the death of Alexander.[15]
The previous empire was then divided into many parts, and Cappadocia fell to Eumenes. His claims were made good in 322 BC by the regent Perdiccas, who crucified Ariarathes; but in the dissensions which brought about Eumenes's death, Ariarathes II, the adopted son of Ariarathes I, recovered his inheritance and left it to a line of successors, who mostly bore the name of the founder of the dynasty.[15]
Persian colonists in the Cappadocian kingdom, cut off from their co-religionists in Iran proper, continued to practice Zoroastrianism. Strabo, observing them in the first century BC, records (XV.3.15) that these "fire kindlers" possessed many "holy places of the Persian Gods", as well as fire temples.[21]
Strabo relates, were "noteworthy enclosures; and in their midst there is an altar, on which there is a large quantity of ashes and where the magi keep the fire ever burning."[21] According to Strabo, who wrote during the time of Augustus (r. 27 BC – AD 14), almost three hundred years after the fall of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, there remained only traces of Persians in western Asia Minor; however, he considered Cappadocia "almost a living part of Persia".[22]
Under Ariarathes IV, Cappadocia came into relations with Rome, first as a foe espousing the cause of Antiochus the Great, then as an ally against Perseus of Macedon. The kings henceforward threw in their lot with the Republic as against the Seleucids, to whom they had been from time to time tributary. Ariarathes V marched with the Roman proconsul Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus against Aristonicus, a claimant to the throne of Pergamon, and their forces were annihilated (130 BC). The imbroglio which followed his death ultimately led to interference by the rising power of Pontus and the intrigues and wars which ended in the failure of the dynasty.[15][23]
Roman and early Christian period
[edit]
Main article: Cappadocia (Roman province)
The ancient city of Tyana, CappadociaKing Orophernes of Cappadocia.
The Cappadocians, supported by Rome against Mithridates VI of Pontus, elected a native lord, Ariobarzanes, to succeed (93 BC). In the same year, Armenian troops under Tigranes the Great entered Cappadocia, dethroned king Ariobarzanes and crowned Gordios as the new client-king of Cappadocia, creating a buffer zone against the encroaching Romans. When Rome deposed the Pontic and Armenian kings, the rule of Ariobarzanes was established (63 BC).[24]
In Caesar's civil war, Cappadocia was first for Pompey, then for Caesar, then for Antony, and finally, Octavian. The Ariobarzanes dynasty came to an end, a Cappadocian nobleman Archelaus was given the throne, by favour first of Antony and then of Octavian, and maintained tributary independence until AD 17, when the emperor Tiberius, whom he had angered, summoned him to Rome and reduced Cappadocia to a Roman province.[24]
In 70 AD, Vespasian joined Armenia Minor to Cappadocia, and made the combined province a frontier bulwark. It remained, under various provincial redistributions, part of the Eastern Empire for centuries.[25] In 314, Cappadocia was the largest province of the Roman Empire, and was part of the Diocese of Pontus.[26] In 371, the western part of the Cappadocia province was divided into Cappadocia Prima, with its capital at Caesarea (modern-day Kayseri); and Cappadocia Secunda, with its capital at Tyana.[26]
By 386, the region to the east of Caesarea had become part of Armenia Secunda, while the northeast had become part of Armenia Prima.[26] Cappadocia largely consisted of major estates, owned by the Roman emperors or wealthy local families.[26] The Cappadocian provinces became more important in the latter part of the 4th century, as the Romans were involved with the Sasanian Empire over control of Mesopotamia and "Armenia beyond the Euphrates".[26]
Cappadocia, now well into the Roman era, still retained a significant Iranian character; Stephen Mitchell notes that "many inhabitants of Cappadocia were of Persian descent and Iranian fire worship is attested as late as 465"[26] and the area also contained a sizeable Armenian population since antiquity.[27] For most of the Byzantine era it remained relatively undisturbed by the conflicts in the area with the Sasanian Empire, but the Persian Wars of the 610s and 620s placed Cappadocia on the frontline for the first time since the first century.[28]
The exact date of arrival of Christianity in uncertain, but latest from the third century it was firmly established in society and the Church was fully developed.[29] The Cappadocian Fathers of the 4th century were integral to much of early Christian philosophy. It produced, among other people, John of Cappadocia, Patriarch of Constantinople from 517 to 520, and Macrina, an early champion of women's monasticism.[30] The region suffered famine in 368 described as "the most severe ever remembered" by Gregory of Nazianzus:
An early Christian hermitage in Cappadocia
The city was in distress and there was no source of assistance [...] The hardest part of all such distress is the insensibility and insatiability of those who possess supplies [...] Such are the buyers and sellers of corn [...] by his word and advice [Basil's] open the stores of those who possessed them, and so, according to the Scripture, dealt food to the hungry and satisfied the poor with bread [...] He gathered together the victims of the famine [...] and obtaining contributions of all sorts of food which can relieve famine, set before them basins of soup and such meat as was found preserved among us, on which the poor live [...] Such was our young furnisher of corn, and second Joseph [...] [But unlike Joseph, Basil's] services were gratuitous and his succour of the famine gained no profit, having only one object, to win kindly feelings by kindly treatment, and to gain by his rations of corn the heavenly blessings.[31]
This is similar to another account by Gregory of Nyssa that Basil "ungrudgingly spent upon the poor his patrimony even before he was a priest, and most of all in the time of the famine, during which [Basil] was a ruler of the Church, though still a priest in the rank of presbyters; and afterwards did not hoard even what remained to him".[31] Basil also famously constructed near Caeserea the Basileias, a vast complex with hospices for sick, churches, quarters for travellers and facilities for doctors and nurses.[32]
Byzantine periods
[edit]
A ceiling fresco in Daniel Pantonassa Church, Ihlara Valley.
The Arrival of Muslim Arab armies in the mid-seventh century resulted in the breakdown of civil and military order of the Eastern provinces and a colossal displacement of population.[28] Cappdocia became a border region of the Byzantine Empire, frequently raided by the Caliphate. From the 7th century, Cappadocia was divided between the Anatolic and Armeniac themes.[28] The frontier zone between Caeserea (Kayseri) and Melitene became a no-man's land, in which the akritai and ghazis fought each other and which is remembered in the epic Digenes Akritas.[33] The warfare, consisting of the yearly razzias as well as major campaigns took a heavy toll on the cities and villages, especially on the favourite Arab lines of march.[34]
Between the 7th and 10th century, Cappadocia was a border region of the Byzantine Empire
Cappadocia contains several underground cities (see Kaymaklı Underground City), many of which were dug by Christians to provide protection during the Arab raids and periods of persecution.[5] The underground cities have vast defence networks of traps throughout their many levels. These traps are very creative, including such devices as large round stones to block doors and holes in the ceiling through which the defenders may drop spears.
Throughout the Dark Ages to the Middle Byzantine period, Armenians immigrated in significant numbers into Cappadocia, partly due to imperial policies.[27] The Arab historian Abu Al Faraj asserts the following about Armenian settlers in Sebasteia, during the 10th century:
They [the Armenians] were assigned the Sebaste (now Siwas) district of Cappadocia. Their number grew to such an extent that they became valuable auxiliaries to the imperial armies. They were employed to garrison the fortresses reconquered from the Arabs (probably Membedj, Dolouk, etc.). They formed excellent infantry for the armies of Basileus in all wars, constantly fighting with courage and success alongside the Romans.[35]
As a result of the Byzantine military campaigns and the Seljuk invasion of Armenia, the Armenians spread into Cappadocia and eastward from Cilicia into the mountainous areas of northern Syria and Mesopotamia, and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia was eventually formed. This immigration was increased further after the decline of the local imperial power and the establishment of the Crusader States following the Fourth Crusade. To the crusaders, Cappadocia was terra Hermeniorum, the land of the Armenians, due to the large number of Armenians settled there.[36]
In the 9th–11th centuries, the region comprised the themes of Charsianon with its capital at the eponymous city and Cappadocia, which had first its capital in Nyssa and then at Koron, after Nyssa had been sacked by the Arabs in 838.[37] By the mid-tenth century, the region was again reorganised as much of the no-men's land was resettled, especially around the area of Larissa, Tzamandos, and Lykandos.[37] After the Byzantine reconquests in the East finished, Cappadocia was again removed from the frontier and an increasingly demilitarised region in the eleventh century.[38]
Frescos inside Tokali Kilise, "Church of the Buckle".
Turkish Cappadocia
[edit]
Following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Turkish clans under the leadership of the Seljuks began settling in Anatolia. With the rise of Turkish power in Anatolia, Cappadocia slowly became a tributary to the Turkish states that were established to the east and to the west; some of the native population converted to Islam[39] with the rest forming the remaining Cappadocian Greek population.
By the end of the early 12th century, Anatolian Seljuks had established their sole dominance over the region. With the decline and the fall of the Konya-based Seljuks in the second half of the 13th century, they were gradually replaced by successive Turkic ruled states: the Karaman-based Beylik of Karaman and then the Ottoman Empire. Cappadocia remained part of the Ottoman Empire until 1922, when it became part of the modern state of Turkey.[citation needed]
In the early 18th century, a fundamental change occurred in between when a new urban center, Nevşehir, was founded by a grand vizier who was a native of the locality (Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha), to serve as regional capital, a role the city continues to assume to this day. In the meantime many former Cappadocians had shifted to a Turkish dialect (written in Greek alphabet, Karamanlıca).
Where the Greek language was maintained (Sille, villages near Kayseri, Pharasa town and other nearby villages), it became heavily influenced by the surrounding Turkish. This dialect of Eastern Roman Greek is known as Cappadocian Greek. Following the foundation of Turkey in 1922, those who still identified with this pre-Islamic culture of Cappadocia were required to leave, so this language is now only spoken by a handful of their descendants, most now located in modern Greece.[citation needed]
Church
[edit]
Cappadocia Church (Turkish: Kapadokya Kilisesi) is a Christian church and local congregation in Avanos, a town in Nevşehir Province in Cappadocia.[40][41][42][43][44] The church holds Turkish-language worship services within a Protestant theological framework, according to its own statements.[45] Several online travel and business directories list it as one of the places of worship and visitation in Avanos.[42][43][44]
Modern tourism
[edit]
See also: Rock-cut architecture of Cappadocia
Cappadocia is famous for traditional cave hotels.
The area is a popular tourist destination, as it has many areas with unique geological, historic, cultural, and religious features. Touristic Cappadocia includes four cities: Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray and Niğde.[citation needed]
The region is located southwest of the major city Kayseri, which has airline and railway service to Ankara and Istanbul and other cities.[citation needed]
The most important towns and destinations in Cappadocia are Ortahisar, Ürgüp, Göreme, Love Valley, Ihlara Valley, Selime, Güzelyurt, Uçhisar, Avanos and Zelve.[citation needed] Cappadocia is served by Nevşehir Kapadokya Airport (NAV), which functions as the region’s primary airport. According to the Republic of Türkiye Directorate General of State Airports Authority (DHMİ), recent infrastructure and capacity expansion projects have increased the airport’s annual passenger capacity to nearly 2 million, a level considered sufficient for the region’s current tourism demand.[46]
Sedimentary rocks formed in lakes and streams and ignimbrite deposits that erupted from ancient volcanoes approximately nine to three million years ago, during the late Miocene to Pliocene epochs, underlie the Cappadocia region. The rocks of Cappadocia near Göreme eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars and minaret-like forms. People of the villages at the heart of the Cappadocia region carved out houses, churches and monasteries from the soft rocks of volcanic deposits.[47]
Göreme became a Christian monastic centre in 300–1200 AD. The Yusuf Koç, Ortahane, Durmus Kadir and Bezirhane churches in Göreme, and houses and churches carved into rocks in the Uzundere, Bağıldere and Zemi Valleys, all evidence Cappadocia as a centre of early Christian learning and are thus a place of pilgrimage. The Göreme Open Air Museum is the most visited site of the Christian monastic communities in Cappadocia (see Churches of Göreme and Churches of the Ihlara Valley) and is one of the most famous sites in central Turkey. The complex contains more than 30 carved-from-rock churches and chapels, some having superb frescoes inside, dating from the ninth century to the eleventh century.[48]
The three main castles in Cappadocia are Uçhisar Castle, Ortahisar Castle, and Ürgüp Kadıkalesi (Temenni Tepe). Among the most visited underground cities are Derinkuyu, Kaymakli, Gaziemir and Ozkonak. The best historic mansions and cave houses for tourist stays are in Ürgüp, Göreme, Güzelyurt and Uçhisar.[citation needed]
Hot-air ballooning is especially popular in Cappadocia, particularly around Göreme, offering sunrise flights over the region's fairy chimneys and valleys.[49]
Trekking is practised in Ihlara Valley, Monastery Valley (Güzelyurt), Ürgüp and Göreme.[citation needed]
Hot air balloons
Mesothelioma
[edit]
In 1975, a study of three small villages in central Cappadocia—Tuzköy, Karain and Sarıhıdır—found that mesothelioma was causing 50% of all deaths. Initially, this was attributed to erionite, a zeolite mineral with similar properties to asbestos, but detailed epidemiological investigation demonstrated that the substance causes the disease mostly in families with a genetic predisposition to mineral fiber carcinogenesis. The studies are being extended to other parts of the region.[50][51]
Media
[edit]
A video showing all the different landscapes and terrain of Göreme and Cappadocia
The area was featured in several films due to its topography. The 1983 Italian/French/Turkish film Yor, the Hunter from the Future and 1985's Land of Doom were filmed in Cappadocia. The region was used for the 1989 science fiction film Slipstream to depict a cult of wind worshippers. In 2010 and early 2011, the film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was filmed in the Cappadocia region.[52]
Autechre's second album, Amber, features a photo of this region's fairy mountains as the cover art,[53] being their only album whose cover isn't computer-generated.[citation needed]
Cappadocia's winter landscapes and broad panoramas are prominent in the 2014 film Winter Sleep (Turkish: Kış Uykusu), directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.[54]
The 2011 video game Assassin's Creed Revelations features the city as a major location, where the protagonist Ezio Auditore travels to in a bid to stop the Byzantine Templars and their operations, kill Manuel Palaiologos and recover the final Masyaf key.
Sports
[edit]
Since 2012, a multiday track running ultramarathon of desert concept, called Runfire Cappadocia Ultramarathon, is held annually in July. The race tours 244 km (152 mi) in six days through several places across Cappadocia reaching out to Lake Tuz.[55] In September 2016, for the first time, the Turkish Presidential Bike Tour took place in Cappadocia, with more than 300 cyclists from around the globe participating.[56]
Gallery
[edit]
Aerial view of the town Göreme.
Aerial view of Uçhisar
General view of Ürgüp
Avanos
Göreme Historical National Park
The 'Three beauties' fairy chimneys, thought to be named after to Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, located in Ürgüp
Pigeon Valley, formerly known as Vasil Potamus
Aktepe "White Hill" near Göreme and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Balloons taking off at sunrise
Mt. Erciyes (3916 m), the highest mountain in Cappadocia
View towards Güzelyurt Monastery Valley and Church Mosque
Cappadocia traditional houses
Decorated tree with Uçhisar Castle in the background.
Horses roaming in Cappadocia
rock-cut architecture in Monks Valley, Paşabağ
A rock-cut church in Cappadocia
Derinkuyu underground city
Kaymakli underground city
Cappadocian Greeks in traditional clothing
Gümüşler Monastery Courtyard in Niğde
Çanlı Kilise, meaning "Bell Church" in Aksaray Province.
Kizil Kilise, meaning "Red Church" in Güzelyurt
Doors of Mustafapaşa
Architectural style of Avanos
Ortahisar castle
See also
[edit]
Amaseia
Ancient regions of Anatolia
Cappadocian Fathers
Cappadocia under the Achaemenids
Kandovan, Iran
Gondrani, Pakistan
Khndzoresk, Armenia
Syunik (historical province)
List of colossal sculpture in situ
List of traditional Greek place names
Mokissos
Tourism in Turkey
References
[edit]
^[Herodotus, The Histories, Book 5, Chapter 49]
^ Van Dam, R. Kingdom of Snow: Roman rule and Greek culture in Cappadocia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, p.13. [1]
^
Demir, Ömer (1997). Cappadocia: Cradle of History. 16: Azim Matbaacılık. p. 15. History, nature and mankind have created many important wonders in Cappadocia: 1- The unique natural landscape, include fairy chimneys, rock formations and valleys. 2- The rock-hewn churches decorated with frescoes from the 6th-12th C of scenes from the Bible, especially the lives of Jesus, Mother Mary and saints. 3- The underground settlements many consider to by the 8th wonder of the ancient world.cite book: CS1 maint: location (link)
^Demir, Ömer (1997). Cappadocia: Cradle of History. 16: Azim Matbaacılık. pp. 11–15, 70.cite book: CS1 maint: location (link)
^ abDemir, Ömer (1997). Cappadocia: Cradle of History. 16: Azim Matbaacılık. p. 70. However, the longest working and living period was the century when underground cities in Cappadocia were dug by Christians who could not bear Arabic and Sassanid threat after Capadocia was conquered … It is clearly visible in some underground cities in Cappadocia that the rooms located near the entrance are profoundly different from those that are inside. Saratli and Özlüce underground cities are given as an example regarding these differences.cite book: CS1 maint: location (link)
^Coindoz M. Archeologia / Préhistoire et archéologie, n°241, 1988, pp. 48–59
^Petra Goedegebuure, "The Luwian Adverbs zanta 'down' and *ānni 'with, for, against'", Acts of the VIIIth International Congress of Hittitology, A. Süel (ed.), Ankara 2008, pp. 299–319.
^Yakubovich, Ilya (2014). Kozuh, M. (ed.). "From Lower Land to Cappadocia". Extraction and Control: Studies in Honor of Matthew W. Stolper. Chicago: Oriental Institute: 347–52.
^See R. Schmitt, "Kappadoker", in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, vol. 5 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980), p. 399, and L. Summerer, "Amisos – eine Griechische Polis im Land der Leukosyrer", in: M. Faudot et al. (eds.), Pont-Euxin et polis. Actes du Xe Symposium de Vani (2005), 129–66 [135] According to an older theory (W. Ruge, "Kappadokia", in A.F. Pauly – G. Wissowa, Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. 10 (Stuttgart: Alfred Druckenmüller, 1919), col. 1911), the name derives from Old Persian and means either "land of the Ducha/Tucha" or "land of the beautiful horses". It has also been proposed that Katpatuka is a Persianized form of the Hittite name for Cilicia, Kizzuwatna, or that it is otherwise of Hittite or Luwian origin (by Tischler and Del Monte, mentioned in Schmitt (1980)). According to A. Room, Placenames of the World (London: MacFarland and Company, 1997), the name is a combination of Assyrian katpa "side" (cf. Heb katef) and a chief or ancestor's name, Tuka.
^Bunbury & Hogarth 1911, p. 286.
^Janse, Mark (2009). "The resurrection of Cappadocian (Asia Minor Greek)". ΑΩ International.
^Van Dam, R. Kingdom of Snow: Roman rule and Greek culture in Cappadocia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, p.14. [2]
^Van Dam, R. Kingdom of Snow: Roman rule and Greek culture in Cappadocia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, p.14. [3]
^"The First 100 IUGS Geological Heritage Sites" (PDF). IUGS International Commission on Geoheritage. IUGS. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
^Map of the Achaemenid Empire
^Evelpidou, Niki; Figueiredo, Tomás; Mauro, Francesco; Tecim, Vahap; Vassilopoulos, Andreas (2010-01-19). Natural Heritage from East to West: Case studies from 6 EU countries. Springer. ISBN 9783642015779.
^ abMary Boyce. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices Psychology Press, 2001 ISBN 978-0415239028 p. 85
^Raditsa 1983, p. 107.
^The coinage of Cappadocian kings was quite extensive and produced by highest standards of the time. See Asia Minor Coins – regal Cappadocian coins
^ abBunbury & Hogarth 1911, pp. 287–288.
^Bunbury & Hogarth 1911, p. 288.
^ abcdefMitchell 2018, p. 290.
^ abCooper & Decker 2012, p. 43.
^ abcCooper & Decker 2012, p. 21.
^Cooper & Decker 2012, p. 139.
^Cooper & Decker 2012, p. 184.
^ abThe Hungry are Dying: Beggars and Bishops in Roman Cappadocia by Susan R. Holman
^Cooper & Decker 2012, pp. 30, 161.
^Cooper & Decker 2012, pp. 24–25, 43.
^Cooper & Decker 2012, p. 23.
^Schlumberger, Gustave Léon (1890). Un empereur byzantin au dixième siècle, Nicéphore Phocas. Paris: Firmin-Didot. pp. 250–251.
^MacEvitt, Christopher (2008). The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 56. ISBN 9780812240504.
^ abCooper & Decker 2012, p. 22.
^Cooper & Decker 2012, p. 31.
^Vryonis, Speros (1971). The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-52-001597-5.
^"Kapadokya Kilisesi resmî sitesi". Kapadokya Kilisesi (in Turkish). Retrieved 7 November 2025.
^"İletişim". Kapadokya Kilisesi (in Turkish). Retrieved 7 November 2025.
^ ab"Kapadokya Kilisesi". Trip.com. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
^ ab"Kapadokya Kilisesi". Yeni Firma (in Turkish). Retrieved 7 November 2025.
^ ab"Kapadokya Kilisesi". Mindtrip. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
^"Hakkımızda". Kapadokya Kilisesi (in Turkish). Retrieved 7 November 2025.
^Republic of Türkiye Directorate General of State Airports Authority (DHMİ), Nevşehir Kapadokya Airport annual passenger statistics and capacity expansion reports.
^Demir, Ömer (1997). Cappadocia: Cradle of History. 16: Azim Matbaacılık. p. 19. The Christians taking shelter in the valleys of Göreme because of Arab raids, named this place 'gor emi' meaning 'you cannot see this place'. The name was changed to Korama and then to Göreme. With its very interesting fairy chimneys and the rock-cut churches, the valley of Avcılar, 17 km from Nevşehir and 6 cm from Ürgüp, attracts travellers' attention. St Paul considered Göreme to be more suitable for the training of missionaries. There are about 400 churches in the vicinity of Göreme which was one of the most important centres of Christianity between the 6th and the 9th C, including churches found in and around Zelve, Mustafapaşa, Avcılar, Uçhisar, Ortahisar and Çavuşin.cite book: CS1 maint: location (link)
^Demir, Ömer (1997). Cappadocia: Cradle of History. 16: Azim Matbaacılık. p. 19. The Christians taking shelter in the valleys of Göreme because of Arab raids, named this place 'gor emi' meaning 'you cannot see this place'. The name was changed to Korama and then to Göreme. With its very interesting fairy chimneys and the rock-cut churches, the valley of Avcılar, 17 km from Nevşehir and 6 cm from Ürgüp, attracts travellers' attention. St Paul considered Göreme to be more suitable for the training of missionaries. There are about 400 churches in the vicinity of Göreme which was one of the most important centres of Christianity between the 6th and the 9th C, including churches found in and around Zelve, Mustafapaşa, Avcılar, Uçhisar, Ortahisar and Çavuşin.cite book: CS1 maint: location (link)
^"Hot air ballooning in Cappadocia". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
^Dogan, Umran (2003). "Mesothelioma in Cappadocian villages". Indoor and Built Environment. 12 (6). Ankara: Sage: 367–75. Bibcode:2003InBEn..12..367D. doi:10.1177/1420326X03039065. ISSN 1420-326X. S2CID 110334356.
^Carbone, Michelle; et al. (2007). "A mesothelioma epidemic in Cappadocia: scientific developments and unexpected social outcomes". Nature Reviews Cancer. 7 (2): 147–54. doi:10.1038/nrc2068. ISSN 1474-175X. PMID 17251920. S2CID 9440201.
^"Cappadocia « the Spirits of Vengeance". Archived from the original on 2014-08-26. Retrieved 2012-06-18.
^Palladev, George (9 February 2018). "Autechre — Amber. Short story behind the artwork". 12edit. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
^Corliss, Richard. "Winter Sleep: Can a Three-Hour-Plus Prize-Winner Be Just Pretty Good?". Time. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
^"Elite Athletes to run at The Runfire Cappadocia". Istanbul Convention & Visitors Bureau. July 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-08-05. Retrieved 2013-11-28.
^"VİDEO | Bisiklet festivali başladı - TRT Spor - Türkiye'nin güncel spor haber kaynağı". Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bunbury, Edward Herbert; Hogarth, David George (1911). "Cappadocia". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 286–288.
Sources
[edit]
Cooper, Eric; Decker, Michael J. (24 July 2012). Life and Society in Byzantine Cappadocia. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-02964-5. Retrieved 6 February 2025.
Mitchell, Stephen (2018). "Cappadocia". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192562463.
Raditsa, Leo (1983). "Iranians in Asia Minor". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3 (1): The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1139054942.
Weiskopf, Michael (1990). "Cappadocia". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IV, Fasc. 7–8. pp. 780–86.
Ene Drăghici-Vasilescu, Elena, book "Byzantine and Medieval Cappadocia', Scientific Research Publishing |2024|978-1649979582|and Ene Drăghici-Vasilescu, Elena, "Shrines and Schools in Byzantine Cappadocia", Journal of Early Christian History, volume 9, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 1–29
Late Roman and early Byzantine provinces (4th–7th centuries AD)
History
As found in the Notitia Dignitatum. Provincial administration reformed and dioceses established by Diocletian, c. 293. Permanent praetorian prefectures established after the death of Constantine I. Empire permanently partitioned after 395. Exarchates of Ravenna and Africa established after 584. After massive territorial losses in the 7th century, the remaining provinces were superseded by the theme system in c. 640–660, although in Asia Minor and parts of Greece they survived under the themes until the early 9th century.
Western Roman Empire (395–476)
Praetorian prefecture
of Gaul
Diocese of Gaul
Alpes Poeninae et Graiae
Belgica I
Belgica II
Germania I
Germania II
Lugdunensis I
Lugdunensis II
Lugdunensis III
Lugdunensis IV
Maxima Sequanorum
Diocese of Vienne1
Alpes Maritimae
Aquitanica I
Aquitanica II
Narbonensis I
Narbonensis II
Novempopulania
Viennensis
Diocese of Spain
Baetica
Balearica
Carthaginensis
Gallaecia
Lusitania
Mauretania Tingitana
Tarraconensis
Diocese of the Britains
Britannia I
Britannia II
Flavia Caesariensis
Maxima Caesariensis
Valentia (?)
Praetorian prefecture
of Italy
Diocese of Suburbicarian Italy
Apulia et Calabria
Campania
Corsica
Lucania et Bruttium
Picenum Suburbicarium
Samnium
Sardinia
Sicilia
Tuscia et Umbria
Valeria
Diocese of Annonarian Italy
Alpes Cottiae
Flaminia et Picenum Annonarium
Liguria et Aemilia
Raetia I
Raetia II
Venetia et Histria
Diocese of Africa2
Africa proconsularis (Zeugitana)
Byzacena
Mauretania Caesariensis
Mauretania Sitifensis
Numidia (divided as Cirtensis and Militiana during the Tetrarchy)
Tripolitania (Roman province)
Eastern Roman Empire (395–c. 640)
Praetorian prefecture
of Illyricum
Diocese of Pannonia3
Dalmatia
Noricum mediterraneum
Noricum ripense
Pannonia I
Pannonia II
Savia
Valeria ripensis
Diocese of Dacia
Dacia Mediterranea
Dacia Ripensis
Dardania
Moesia I
Praevalitana
Diocese of Macedonia
Achaea
Creta
Epirus Nova
Epirus Vetus
Macedonia Prima
Macedonia II Salutaris
Thessalia
Praetorian prefecture
of the East
Diocese of Thrace5
Europa
Haemimontus
Moesia II4
Rhodope
Scythia4
Thracia
Diocese of Asia5
Asia
Caria4
Hellespontus
Islands4
Lycaonia (370)
Lycia
Lydia
Pamphylia
Pisidia
Phrygia Pacatiana
Phrygia Salutaris
Diocese of Pontus5
Armenia I5
Armenia II5
Armenia Maior5
Armenian Satrapies5
Armenia III (536)
Armenia IV (536)
Bithynia
Cappadocia I5
Cappadocia II5
Galatia I5
Galatia II Salutaris5
Helenopontus5
Honorias5
Paphlagonia5
Pontus Polemoniacus5
Diocese of the East5
Arabia
Cilicia I
Cilicia II
Cyprus4
Euphratensis
Isauria
Mesopotamia
Osroene
Palaestina
Prima
Secunda
Salutaris
Phoenice I
Phoenice II Libanensis
Syria I
Syria II Salutaris
Theodorias (528)
Diocese of Egypt5
Aegyptus I
Aegyptus II
Arcadia
Augustamnica I
Augustamnica II
Libya Superior
Libya Inferior
Thebais Superior
Thebais Inferior
Other territories
Taurica
Quaestura exercitus (536)
Spania (552)
1 Later the Septem Provinciae
2 Re-established after reconquest by the Eastern Empire in 534 as the separate Prefecture of Africa
3 Later the Diocese of Illyricum
4 Placed under the Quaestura exercitus in 536
5 Affected (i.e. boundaries modified, abolished or renamed) by Justinian I's administrative reorganization in 534–536
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World Heritage Sites in Turkey
Aegean
Aphrodisias
Ephesus
Hierapolis / Pamukkale
Pergamon
Sardis and the Lydian Tumuli of Bin Tepe
Black Sea
Hattusa
Safranbolu
Central Anatolia
Çatalhöyük
Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital
Gordion
Göreme National Park and Cappadocia
East Anatolia
Ani
Arslantepe Mound
Marmara
Bursa and Cumalıkızık
Historic Areas of Istanbul
Selimiye Mosque and its Social Complex
Troy
Mediterranean
Xanthos / Letoon
Southeastern Anatolia
Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens
Göbekli Tepe
Mount Nemrut
Multiple regions
Wooden Hypostyle Mosques of Medieval Anatolia
Turkey portal
Category
External links
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