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Home
 About Cappadocia
About
Cappadocia |
 In
ancient geography, Cappadocia or Capadocia,
Turkish Kapadokya (from Persian: Katpatuka
meaning "the land of beautiful horses" was
the name of the extensive inland district of
Asia Minor (modern Turkey). The name
continued to be used in western sources and
in the Christian tradition throughout
history and is still widely used as an
international tourism concept to define a
region of exceptional natural wonders
characterized by fairy chimneys and a unique
historical and cultural heritage. The term,
as used in tourism, roughly corresponds to
present-day Nevsehir Province of Turkey. |
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 It
is impossible to define Cappadocia's limits with any
real accuracy. In the time of Herodotus, the
Cappadocians are supposed to have occupied the whole
region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the
Euxine (Black Sea). Cappadocia, in this sense, was
bounded in the south by the chain of Mount Taurus,
to the east by the Euphrates, to the north by
Pontus, and to the west vaguely by the great salt
lake, Lake Tuz, in Central Anatolia. But Strabo, the
only ancient author who gives any circumstantial
account of the country, greatly exaggerated its
dimensions. It is now believed that 250 miles in
length by less than 150 in breadth is a more
realistic appraisal of Cappadocia's extension. |
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Etymology |
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 The
earliest record of the name of Cappadocia dates from
the late 6th century BC where it appears in the
trilingual inscriptions of two early Achaemenid
Kings, Darius I and Xerxes, as one of the countries
(Old Persian dahyu-) which are part of the Persian
Empire. In these lists of countries the Old Persian
name is Katpatuka but it is clearly not a native
Persian word. The Elamite and Akkadian language
versions of the inscriptions contain a similar name
from Akkadian katpa "side" (cf. Heb katef) and a
chief or ancestor's name, Tuka. Herodotus tells us
that the name of the Cappadocians (Katpatouka) was
applied to them by the Persians, while they were
termed by the Greeks "Syrians" or "White Syrians" (Leucosyri).
One of the Cappadocian tribes he mentions are 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. Also see Ketubot 13:11 in
the Mishna. |
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 Cappadocia
is also mentioned in the Biblical account given in
the book of Acts 2:9, with the Cappadocians being
named as one of the people groups 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 seems to suggest that the
Cappadocians in this account were "God-fearing
Jews". See Acts of the Apostles. Under the later
kings of the Persian empire they were divided into
two satrapies, or governments, the 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.
The kingdom of Cappadocia was still in existence in
the time of Strabo 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. |
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History |
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 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, Cappadocia was left in the power of a sort
of feudal aristocracy, dwelling in strong castles
and keeping the peasants in a servile condition,
which later made them apt for foreign slavery. It
was included in the third Persian satrapy in the
division established by Darius, but long continued
to be governed by rulers of its own, none apparently
supreme over the whole country and all more or less
tributary to the Great King. |
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After bringing the Persian Empire to an end,
Alexander the Great met with great resistance in
Cappadocia.
 He
tried to rule the area through one of his commanders
named Sabictus, but the ruling classes and people
resisted and declared Ariarthes, a Persian
aristocrat, as king. This sent a message to
Alexander that not all Persians would submit to his
rule. Ariarthes I (332 - 322 BC) was a successful
ruler, and extended the borders of the Cappadocian
Kingdom as far as the Black Sea. The kingdom of
Cappadocia lived in peace until the death of
Alexander, when the kingdom fell, in the general
partition of the empire, to Eumenes. His claims were
made good in 322 BC by the regent Perdiccas, who
crucified Ariarathes; but in the dissensions which
brought to Eumenes's death, the son of Ariarathes
recovered his inheritance and left it to a line of
successors, who mostly bore the name of the founder
of the dynasty. |
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 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 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. |
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The Cappadocians, supported by Rome against
Mithridates VI of Pontus, elected a native lord,
Ariobarzanes,
 to
succeed (93 BC); but in the same year Armenian
troops under Tigranes the Great (Tigran) entered
Cappadocia, dethroned king Ariobarzanes and crowned
Gordios as the new client-king of Cappadocia, thus
creating a buffer zone against the encroaching
Romans. It was not till Rome had deposed the Pontic
and Armenian kings that the rule of Ariobarzanes was
established (63 BC). In the civil wars Cappadocia
was now for Pompey, now for Caesar, now for Antony,
now against him. The Ariobarzanes dynasty came to an
end and a certain Archelaus reigned in its stead, by
favour first of Antony, then of Octavian, and
maintained tributary independence till AD 17, when
the emperor Tiberius, on Archelaus's death in
disgrace, reduced Cappadocia at last to a Roman
province and later to a region of the Byzantine
Empire. |
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 Cappadocia
contains several underground cities (see Kaymaklı
Underground City), largely used by early Christians
as hiding places before they became a legitimate
religion. The Cappadocian Fathers of the fourth
century were integral to much of early Christian
philosophy. It also produced, among other people,
another Patriarch of Constantinople, John of
Cappadocia who held office 517–520. For most of the
Byzantine era it remained relatively undisturbed by
the conflicts in the area, first with the Sassanid
Empire and later against the Islamic expansion led
by Arabs. |
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Cappadocia shared an always changing relation with
the neighbouring Armenia, by that time a region of
the Empire. The Arab historian Abu Al Faraj purports
the following about Armenian settlers in Sivas,
during the 10th century: “Sivas, in Cappadocia, was
dominated by the Armenians and their numbers became
so many that they became vital members of the
imperial armies. These Armenians were used as
watch-posts in
 strong
fortresses, taken from the Arabs. They distinguished
themselves as experienced infantry soldiers in the
imperial army and were constantly fighting with
outstanding courage and success by the side of the
Romans in other words Byzantine.” As a result of the
Byzantine military campaigns, the Armenians spread
into Cappadocia and eastward from Cilicia into the
mountainous areas of northern Syria and Mesopotamia.
This immigration was increased further after the
decline of the local imperial power and the
establishment of the Crusader States following the
4th Crusade. Cappadocia became part of the Armenian
Kingdom of Cilicia, a state formed in the 12th
century by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk
invasion of Armenia and a close ally of the
Crusaders. |
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Following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 various
Turkish clans under the leadership of the Seljuks
began settling in Anatolia. With the rise of Turkish
power in Anatolia, Cappadocia slowly became
tributary to the Turkish states that were
established to the east and to the west and some of
the population converted to Islam. 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 the Karaman-based Beylik
of Karamanoğlu, who themselves were gradually
succeeded by the Ottoman Empire in the course of the
15th century. Cappadocia remained part of the
Ottoman Empire for the centuries to come and remains
now part of the modern state of Turkey. A
fundamental change came in between when a new urban
center, Nevşehir, was founded in early 18th century
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. |
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In
the meantime, many former Cappadocians had shifted
to a Turkish dialect (written in Greek alphabet,
Karamanlıca) and where 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 Greek is
known as Cappadocian Greek. Following the 1923
population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the
language is now only spoken by a handful of the
former population's descendants in modern Greece. |
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Modern Tourism |
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The area is a famous and popular tourist
destination, as it has many areas with unique
geological, historic and cultural features. The
region is southwest of the major city Kayseri, which
has airline and railroad service to Ankara and
Istanbul.
The
Cappadocia region is largely underlain by
sedimentary rocks formed in lakes and streams, and
ignimbrite deposits erupted from ancient volcanoes
approximately 9 to 3 million years ago (late Miocene
to Pliocene epochs). The rocks of Cappadocia near
Göreme eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars
and minaret-like forms. The volcanic deposits are
soft rocks that the people of the villages at the
heart of the Cappadocia Region carved out to form
houses, churches, monasteries. Göreme became a
monastic center between 300-1200 AD. First period
settlement in Göreme reaches to the Roman period
from Christianity. Yusuf Koç, Ortahane, Durmus Kadir
and Bezirhane churches in Göreme, houses and
churches carved into rocks till to Uzundere,
Bağıldere and Zemi Valley carries the mystical side
of history today. The Göreme Open Air Museum is the
most visited site of the monastic communities in
Cappadocia and is one of the most famous sites in
central Turkey. It is a complex comprising more than
30 rock-carved churches and chapels containing some
superb frescoes, dating from the 9th to the 11th
centuries. |
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