Reflections on a Pauline Pilgrimage to Turkey [3]
Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” [Acts 2:7-11]
Cappadocia chimneys
Cappadocia is stunningly beautiful!
Cappadocia (Turkish Kappadokya), our guide repeatedly said, is not a town or a place, but an extensive mountainous region in central Turkey.
On the trip, five activities were memorable.
[1] Taking in the beauty of the rock-formations
Cappadocia is Turkey’s most “visually striking region”, “unique in the world”, “where nature and history come together with the most beautiful scenery in the world”…, announce tourism articles, drawing tourists from every part of the world.
Violent volcanic eruptions brought sedimentation of large quantities of ash layers in the whole area. As these ash layers took centuries to solidify, rivers and brooks, wind and rains, gouged grooves in them and eroded the top level in different shapes and depth. Over time, the elements formed caves, clefts, “fairy chimneys”, “mushroom rocks” and sensuous folds in the soft volcanic rock. The “moonscape” in the region has been likened by some to “a poem” and “a picture drawn on the earth by nature”. It is the most unique natural environment in Turkey which earned the UNESCO World Heritage site listing since 1985. It is a tourist-must-see destination.
While the landscape is magical and takes one’s breath away, there is altogether another world beneath the surface, where churches, cathedrals, homes and storage facilities were hewn out. The region was a refuge for the first Christians of Asia Minor. More recently, between the 7th and 13th centuries, the area was a safe-haven for the Christians under the threat of Muslim Arab raids. There are hundreds of churches and famous places with large numbers of early Christian settlements and churches in this area. Our itinerary accommodated tours to the Göreme sites and the Derinkuyu underground city.
[2] Visiting an underground city
The location of Cappadocia made it an extremely critical and strategic region. Coupled with its trade and resources, it was a perennial tempting prize to outside powers. To protect themselves from endless invasions, the local inhabitants became troglodytes – cave dwellers who expertly devised for themselves a place of habitation complete with a clever system of protection and survival. For example, they concealed and blocked the entrances to their caverns and grottos so as to keep the enemies out. They made their cave dwellings interconnected so a community life could be had even as they stayed underground. And, to survive for extended periods of time, these troglodytic dwellings developed into subterranean cities that included sources of water, places to store food, wineries, and places of worship and, very importantly, complete with a good system of ventilation. Some of them date back to before the Christian era.
The underground city of Derinkuyu was the hiding place for the first Christians who were escaping from the persecution of the Roman empire. Some items discovered in these underground settlements date back to the Middle Byzantine Period, between the 5th and the 10th centuries A.D. The number of underground settlements, generally used for taking refuge and for religious purposes, increased during this era on account of the threats of Arab-Muslim raids.
It is quite an experience to note the ingenuity and the spirit of perseverance of the early Christians. The captivation of Cappadocia lingers on whenever we recall how and where the early Christians hid in times of trouble.
Cappadocia Kaymakli and Derinkuyu Underground Cities.
[3] Visiting rock churches and religious settlements
The Göreme Open Air Museum features over ten cave churches dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries, along with rectories, dwellings, and a religious school. They form a large monastic complex carved out of rock formation in an incredible landscape.
Each church has a modern Turkish name, given by local villagers based on visual identification of certain features, such as an Apple Church, a Snake Church, a Dark Church, a Church with a Shield, a Buckle Church, a Sandal Church and so on. A remarkable rock-carved convent displays six stories of tunnels, corridors, stairways and chambers, and could easily have housed as many as 300 nuns at any one time.
Byzantine murals dating from 900-1200 AD are still found in these churches, most of which are in surprisingly good conditions. We saw all the painted figures had their eyes gouged out, probably on account of local superstitious fear of the Evil Eye. The Dark Church, whose walls were long protected by pigeon droppings, has alone escaped this criminal damage. Another recurring feature is St. George slaying the dragon, an event which the locals insist happened on the summit of a nearby mountain.
[L] Following the counterclockwise route around the Göreme Open Air Museum. [M] Resurrection of Lazarus in the Apple Church. [R] Nativity of Christ in the Dark Church © Dick Osseman.
[L] Interior of the large Buckle Church. [M] Crucifixion of Christ in the Dark Church. [R] Christ Pantocrator in the Dark Church © Dick Osseman.
[4] Taking an early morning hot-air balloon ride
A toast of champagne back on firm ground. Photo © Teresa Sim.
Those who took the hot-air balloon ride got up for an early morning pickup, had an exhilarating experience apparently, even if the ride at US$220 per person represented a 120% hike compared to just two years ago. They certainly worked up a good appetite that was visibly apparent when they returned to the hotel for breakfast.
[5] Celebrating Mass at a cave-church
When we got to a simple, little, open, bare, millennium-old cave church to celebrate Mass all by ourselves, away from the hustle and bustle of heavy tourist-traffic [with gratitude to Mr. Tuna, our guide, who sourced for this locale from a fellow local guide], it was such a delightfully blessed time to pause and reflect on the faith of the people more than a millennium ago. In great simplicity, they persevered and celebrated their faith.
Many things cruised through our minds.
- It was such a privilege to sit there and recall the faith and the spirit of Christians worshiping in the same simple little old cave-church a thousand years before us.
- It was such an awesome feeling to imagine and feel the spiritual communion with those saints.
- And, it was such a humbling experience to realize that we always are standing on the shoulders of those who had gone before us. So we recalled with gratitude the theological contributions of the Cappadocian Fathers, who are Basil the Great (330-379), who was bishop of Caesarea; Basil’s brother Gregory of Nyssa (c.330-395), who was bishop of Nyssa; and a close friend, Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389), who became Patriarch of Constantinople.
The history of Cappadocia includes a strong Hittite civilization that dates from about 2000 BC onwards. Archeologists continue to make fresh discoveries of Hittite art, architecture and inscriptions in several sites. From about 718 BC, Cappadocia emerged as a satrapy of Persia. A period of semi-autonomy followed Alexander the Great‘s conquest of the Persian empire (330 BC). From then on, a heavy dose of the Greek culture was introduced. Then, a line of native kings established an independent throne, which lasted until Cappadocia was incorporated as a province in the Roman Empire in 17 AD under Emperor Tiberius.
Two things were relevant to the spread of the Christian faith to this region. First, pagan religion had a deep hold upon the population prior to the advent of Christianity. Second, with its command over strategic passes in the Taurus Mountains, the area offered a key fortification to the Byzantine Empire until the 11th century.
Mentioned specifically by name only twice in the Bible, Cappadocia was intimately linked to the life and mission of the early church. First, the Cappadocians were amongst the crowds upon the birth of the church on the Day of Pentecost [Acts 2:6-11]. Second, Peter in his first epistle addressed himself to the faithful in Cappadocia whom, in Peter’s words, were “chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood” [1 Peter 1:1-2].
Paul is known to have travelled widely throughout this whole region in Central Anatolia. During the early periods of Christianity, the first followers of Jesus settled in this area to hide from the soldiers of the Roman Empire. Paul, it is said, found Cappadocia to be the secure place he was looking for after having been expelled from Jerusalem. It is also known that he came to this region and established the first Christian colony with his followers. No wonder Cappadocia is a land of early Christian churches.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, July, 2011. All rights reserved.
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