Everything about Cappadocia totally explained
In
ancient geography,
Cappadocia or
Capadocia,
Turkish Kapadokya (from
Greek: Καππαδοκία / Kappadokía, which in turn is from the
Persian:
Katpatuka meaning "the land of beautiful horses"), was the name of an 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
Nevşehir Province of Turkey.
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 east-west by north-south is a more realistic appraisal of Cappadocia's extension.
Herodotus tells us that the name of the Cappadocians 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're Cappadocians".
AotJ I:6. Also see
Ketubot 13:11 in the
Mishna.
Cappadocia is also mentioned in the Biblical account given in the book of, 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. 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, 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.
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.
History
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.
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 Ariarathes, 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 about 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.
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'd 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.
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 wasn't until 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 and then of
Octavian, and maintained tributary independence until AD 17, when the emperor
Tiberius, on Archelaus' death in disgrace, reduced Cappadocia at last to a Roman province. Much later it was a region of the
Byzantine Empire.
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 4th 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.
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.
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 over 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 occurred in between when a new urban center,
Nevşehir, was founded in the 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.
In the meantime many former Cappadocians had shifted to a Turkish dialect (written in
Greek alphabet,
Karamanlıca), and 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 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.
Modern tourism
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.
Mesothelioma
In 1975 a study from three small villages in central Cappadocia—Tuzköy, Karain and Sarhdr—found that
mesothelioma cases caused 50% of all deaths. Initially, this was attributed to
erionite, a 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.
Cappadocians in popular culture
- In The Simpsons episode "Brother from Another Series", the character Sideshow Bob grudgingly acknowledges the Cappadocians as the only "civilization in history [that] considered 'chief hydrological engineer' a calling". This referred to the Cappadocians being famous for underground cities, although not specifically dams.
Dama the Cappadocian merchant is a major character in several early heroic fantasy stories set around the third century A.D. written by David Drake, Latin scholar and science fiction and fantasy author. The physical and temporal locale was a Roman frontier society in Asia Minor exposed to new conflicts with Christianity and continuing old conflicts with bandits and Persian invaders, where a merchant could experience exotic cultures and find occasion to demonstrate some skill with personal arms.
Wu tang Affiliate Darryl Hill styles himself as "Cappadonna" in reference to this civilization and also goes by the pseudonym "Lebanon don" in reference to Lebanon being a part of this civilization.
In the popular role playing game series, a fallen of Vampires known as the Cappadocians played an integral part in the existence of the modern clan known as the Giovanni. Their relation to Cappadocia seems to be only titular and possibly geographical.
The Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia are shown in the film The Stone Merchant.
The Fairy Chimneys also appear in a short story featured in volume 28 of the manga series Red River.
In the computer game, by The Creative Assembly, one can recruit a heavy cavalry unit called Cappadocian Cavalry, a Cataphract unit, but with weaker defence and attack, in comparison with the other Cataphracts (for example, the Armenian Cataphract).
Electronic musicians Autechre feature the Cappadocians on the cover of their second album, Amber.
In "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" by Stephen Adly Guirgis, Satan appears to a drunk Judas claiming to be "Clementine from Cappadocia" which Judas mistakenly calls "Cappa-douche-ah" and belives it to be in Egypt.
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