Part 6:  Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe, Turkey

Part 6:  Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe, Turkey –
Was Underground Cappadocia Another Escape from Catastrophe?

© 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe

 

“Cappadocia was a huge underground refuge, and I believe
many areas might date back thousands of years, perhaps even
to the
end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago when Gobekli Tepe was constructed.”

   – Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., Geologist, Boston University

 

Above:  The Cappadocia region is southeast of Ankara, Turkey, in the Nevsehir Province
and bounded by the four cities of Kirsehir (top left red circle); Aksaray (far left red circle);
Nigde (lowest red circle in black outlined Cappadocia); and Kayseri (far right red
circle in black outline). Urfa and nearby Gobekli Tepe are the red circle in lower
right near Turkey and Syria border. Below: Anatolian Balloons firing up on
June 11, 2012, before sunrise to take tourists for balloon rides over the spectacular
and eerie volcanic landscapes of Cappadocia where Anatolians
have carved homes in pointed lava ash domes and made underground cities
for millennia. Balloon image © 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe.

Robert Schoch’s Cappadocia balloon group rising from ground at sunrise on June 11, 2012.

Above and below:  Anatolian and other balloons rising over volcanic landscape
of Cappadocia, Turkey, on June 11, 2012.
Image © 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe.

Fairy chimneys of Pasabag and Monks Valley where historians of the region say
that Saint Simon in the 5th Century A.D. moved into one of the fairy chimneys to be
alone after rumors that he created miracles. Image © 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe.

Tufa cones from Goreme in the Kiliclar Valley of Cappadocia, Turkey.
Image © 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe.

Uchisar gets its name from a Hittite castle built long ago on the ancient Silk Road
in the pinkish-beige volcanic rock formations. Today there are large apartment buildings
that house many people. The temperature inside remains the same all
through
the year. Expansions occur by simply carving into more surrounding volcanic rock.
Image © 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe.

The Bible’s Acts of the Apostles describes how Saul of Tarsus, Anatolia, was traveling
to Damascus, Syria, when a strong light appeared in the sky that caused Saul to fall off
his horse. A voice from heaven said, “Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul asked,
“Who are you, Lord?”  The voice replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
(Acts of the Apostles 9:5)  Saul changed his life to champion Christ and became
known as St. Paul. In the Cappadocia volcanic rocks of Antakya, the first church
dedicated to Christ was carved. Since then, many churches have been carved into
Cappadocia volcanic rock such as the one above. Image © 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe.

Mount Erciyes rises 12,848 feet (3,916 meters) above the Cappadocia plateau
in foreground that is covered with volcanic ash mounds and “fairy houses” from
this central Turkey region that had persistent volcanic eruptions millions of years ago
from half a dozen volcanoes. Those continuous ancient eruptions produced the
Mid-Anatolian Plateau with masses of lava and ash that are 656 feet
(200 meters deep). It is possible that the Hipparion ancestor of the modern horse
was killed off by all the volcanic eruptions. Image © 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe.

 

July 2, 2012  Cappadocia Region southeast of Ankara, Turkey, in ancient Anatolia – The western frontier of Asia known as Asia Minor was the region of Anatolia that encompassed the central uplands of modern Turkey from the coastal plain of the Aegean Sea east to the mountains on the Armenian border and from the narrow coast of the Black Sea south to the Taurus mountains and Mediterranean coast.

Although the origins of some of the earliest Anatolian inhabitants are shrouded in mystery, there are remnants of Bronze Age civilizations such as the Hattian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Hittite. After the fall of the Hittites, the new states of Phrygia and Lydia stood strong on the western coast of Turkey as Greek civilization began to flourish simultaneously along with the conflicting power threat of a strong Persian kingdom.

The ancient Anatolia timeline of inhabitants stretches from the
Stone Age through the last ice age 12,000 years ago into Neolithic
cultures, the Bronze Age, Iron Age and post-Iron Age
since 600 B. C. Graphic by Wikipedia.

The earliest record of the name Cappadocia dates from the late Iron Age in 6th century B.C., when the name appears in the trilingual inscriptions of two early Achaemenid kings, Darius I and Xerxes, of the Persian Empire. The Old Persian name is spelled Katpatuka, which is of uncertain origin. The name could be genuine Old Persian, meaning either “land of the Ducha/Tucha” or “land of the beautiful horses,” consistent with ancient Cappadocia’s fame for horse breeding.

 

Kaymakli, Cappadocia:  Ancient Underground City

Images above and below © 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe.

Kaymakli underground © by Silk Road Publications.

The day before our sunrise balloon ride over Cappadocia, we visited Kaymakli, anciently known as Enegup, and one of the largest underground settlements in the region. The high number of storage rooms and areas for earthenware jars on the fourth floor indicates there was a need to support a large population underground. Currently only a fraction of the complex has been open to the public since 1964.

Today modern houses above ground are constructed around the nearly one hundred tunnels of the underground Kaymakli. The tunnels are still used today as storage areas, stables, and cellars. The tunnels are low, narrow, and steeply inclined.

Many Kaymakli passageways are only hip-wide.
Image © 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe.

Of the four floors open to tourists, each space is organized around ventilation shafts. This makes the design of each room or open space dependent on the availability of ventilation.

There are several vertical air tunnels in the underground cities of Kaymakli
and Derinkuyu. The bottom parts of the chimney-like tunnels are water wells.
Kaymakli ventilation shaft © 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe.

A stable is located on the first floor. The small size of the stable could indicate that other stables exist in the sections not yet opened. To the left of the stable is a passage with a millstone door. The door leads into a church. To the right of the stables are rooms, possibly living spaces.
Located on the second floor is a church with a nave and two apses. Located in front of the apses is a baptismal font, and on the sides along the walls are seating platforms. Names of people contained in graves here coincide with those located next to the church, which supports the idea that these graves belonged to religious people. The church level also contains some living spaces. The third floor contains storage places, wine or oil presses, and kitchens.

Earthfiles Reporter and Editor Linda Moulton Howe stepping through one
of the narrow doors connecting rooms on several levels inside the
underground city of Kaymakli in Cappadocia on June 10, 2012.

 

History of Kaymakli, Cappadocia

Kaymakli came under the rule of the Assyrian Empire around the 8th century B.C., then by the Medes and then by the Persians in the reign of emperor Cyrus the Great in 546 B.C. In 333 B.C., Alexander the Great defeated the Persians. After his death, Cappadocia came under the rule of the dynasty of Ariarathes with present-day Kayseri as the capital. Then the Cappadocian kingdom became part of the Roman empire, in the reign of Emperor Tiberius.

Many of the churches, hewn in the rocks, date from the early years of Christianity. Even when Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the empire, the caves offered protection for the local people during raids by the Sassanid Persians circa 604 A.D. and by the Islamic Caliphate circa 647A.D. The underground shelters around Nevsehir and Goreme were originally built to escape persecution and tax collections by Roman authorities, but how far back in time do the underground cities of Cappadocia go?

Geologist Robert Schoch, Ph.D., Boston University, wrote in his trip notes for the 2-week journey from Istanbul to Gobekli Tepe:  “The dominant rocks in Cappadocia are hardened volcanic ashes and tuffs (tufa).

[ Editor’s Note:  Tufa is a variety of limestone, formed by the precipitation of carbonate minerals from ambient temperature water bodies. Geothermally heated hot-springs sometimes produce similar, but less porous, carbonate deposits known as travertine. ]

Caps of harder rock protecting the softer tuffs below form the ‘Fairy Chimneys.’ For thousands of years, the inhabitants of the area have carved out caves, underground dwellings, churches and entire underground cities. Cappadocia was a huge underground refuge, and I believe many areas might date back thousands of years, perhaps even to the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago when Gobekli Tepe was constructed. Cappadocia’s underground cities such as Kaymakli were used, reused and expanded in later centuries.”

 

Return to Part 1.


More Information:

For information and registration for August 12 – 25, 2012 Grand Turkish Tour and December 20, 2012 – January 2, 2013 Egypt Tour, click on websites below:

– Ancient Civilization Tours with Gregory Poplawski, Poland:  http://www.timeofanewera.com

– Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., Geology, Boston University:  http://www.robertschoch.com/

 

For further reports about Gobekli Tepe and other ancient sites, please see Earthfiles Archive.

• 06/28/2012 — Part 5: Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe, Turkey – Another Artificial Covering Over Mount Nemrut
• 06/26/2012 — Part 4: Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe, Turkey – Interview with Geologist Robert Schoch
• 06/21/2012 — Part 3: Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe – Buried to Escape Incoming Comets? Meteorites? Huge Solar Flares?
• 06/18/2012 — Part 2: Mysterious 12,000-Years-Old Gobekli Tepe – Odd Pillar Creatures, Bizarre Totem and Mouthless Man
• 06/16/2012 — Part 1: Mysterious 12,000-Year-Old Gobekli Tepe
• 05/06/2012 — Updated: Malta’s 6,000-Year-Old Hypogeum – Built to Alter Minds with Sound?
• 11/23/2011 — Greek Gods Were Extraterrestrials, Says Erich von Daniken in Latest Book, Odyssey of the Gods.
• 09/30/2011 — Part 2: Interviews with Scientists Studying Mysterious, Ancient Stone Circles in Middle East Visible Only from Air
• 09/16/2011 — Part 1: Mysterious, Ancient Stone Circles in Middle East Visible Only from Air
• 10/21/2010 — Dead Sea Scrolls Going Online
• 10/01/2010 — Gobekli Tepe: 12,000 Years Old and Rewriting Human History
• 07/07/2006 — Noah’s Ark Atop Takht-e-Soleiman Peak in Iran?
• 12/09/2005 — Mystery of “Footprints” in 1.3 Million-Year-Old Mexico Volcanic Rock
• 04/23/2002 — John Anthony West Organizing New Effort to Date Weathering of Sphinx and Red Pyramid Chamber
• 12/01/2001 — 1200 B. C. – What Caused Earthquake Storms, Global Drought and End of Bronze Age?
• 11/19/2001 — Update on Underwater Megalithic Structures near Western Cuba
• 09/22/2001 — Huge Hexagram Crop Formation in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
• 06/16/2001 — Beyond Stonehenge with Astronomer Gerald Hawkins
• 05/05/2001 — Archaeologists Find Central Asia Civilization As Old As Sumeria
• 05/28/2000 — Hamoukar, Syria – A City Older Than 6000 Years?


Websites:

Prehistory of Anatolia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory_of_Anatolia

History of Anatolia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Anatolia

History of Hittites:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hittites

History of Byzantine Empire (eastern Roman Empire):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire

Istanbul Was Once Constantinople:  http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/istanbul.htm

Mount Nemrut Archaeological Site: 
http://www.wmf.org/project/mount-nemrut-archaeological-site

Astrological Ages:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_age

Water Weathering of the Sphinx:
http://www.robertschoch.com/sphinxcontent.html

Archaeology, “The World’s First Temple”:
http://www.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/turkey.html

Gobekli Tepe, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe

Smithsonian, November 2008:  “Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?”
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html

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