As we headed towards Kayseri Airport, we briefly stopped by at Çavuşin village, which is on the road between Uçhisar and Avanos.
Çavuşin is a small village which houses rock cut churches and homes from the Byzantine era. It also houses underground habitations that date back to the pre-historic era, some of which were later occupied by the Christian settlers.
Çavuşin village...
Quiet and a bit sleepy, Çavuşin is how it should be, but some ugly modern developments have taken over the village in the recent years...
There are 38 known underground cities in the Cappadocia area, the famous ones being Kaymakli and Derinkuyu. Other smaller ones dot the landscape around the region. Many people there are are more than the 38 known cities...
As we head deeper, we are told that there are lots of myths surrounding these cities. There are some who firmly believe that these habitations date back to the time of the Old Testament and Noah. They also believe that the locals took refuge here during the time of the great flood...
This region, especially Turkey, has rich pickings for Biblical treasure hunters - there has been a lot of speculation that the Noah's Ark is somewhere in this region - modern Anatolia or around the Mount Ararat, that we had seen our flight to Paris, last month. In my view one cannot discount the speculation that these structures have a Bibilical connection...
Ancient drainage system...
A granary...
A winery...
Grain storage area...
The soot on the walls tells us this was a cooking area...
A porthole for ventilation...
A circular stone door...
It is indeed debatable to the point of speculation whether there is a Biblical connection to this place, a connection to the Ark, but one thing is for sure, the ingenuity of humans is indeed appreciable - they have historically made the best out of what nature had to offer!
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