Làm thế nào một thành phố được xây dựng bên trong một ngọn núi lửa cách đây 3.000 năm?

In the very heart of Turkey, in the middle of the Anatolian Plateau, There is a place that looks as if it were dreamed up by a surrealist artist after a sleepless night. Landscape from another world. Cone-shaped stone towers several tens of meters high, Like mushrooms, like inverted icicles, like magical chimneys from a children's fairy tale. Between them—gorges eroded by rain in soft rock, with responsible walls of pink, yellow, and white colors. Huge boulders lie on the tops of some "mushrooms," like hats worn by nature on stone giants. This is Cappadocia. And this is not just a beautiful landscape. This is the place where people built a city three thousand years ago. Not next to the volcano, not at the foot of the volcano, but inside it. More precisely, inside what remained of him. To understand how this is possible, one must begin with geology. Because without geology, the history of Cappadocia makes no sense. Millions of years ago, during the Miocene epoch, in the territory of modern central Turkey Volcanic activity raged on a colossal scale. Three major volcanoes — RGC, Khasan, and Güllüdağ — erupted one after another, spewing into the air millions of tons of ash, pumice, and scorching gases. Ash settled onto the ground in layers, one on top of another. meter by meter, decade by decade. Over time, these layers were compressed and turned into rock. called "tuff." A soft, porous stone resembling hardened sand. Tuff is, in essence, fossilized volcanic ash. And it was precisely he who became the building material. for one of the most incredible civilizations in history. But the shoe is non-uniform. The ash from different eruptions had varying compositions and temperatures. And this created a layered structure. Soft layers alternated with harder ones. When millions of years of rain, wind, and temperature fluctuations They began to destroy this breed, The soft layers washed away more quickly, while the hard ones remained. And those magical chimneys were created— Cones made of soft tuff with caps of hard basalt on top. The basalt cap protects the underlying soft rock from rain. Like an umbrella, the cone remains intact while everything around it falls apart. When the hat finally falls, and it inevitably falls sooner or later, The cone begins to rapidly disintegrate. Smokestacks can be seen throughout Cappadocia. at different stages of this process. From tall and slender ones, with caps, down to the low, sagging stumps that had lost their roofs. And thus, people arrived in this fantastic landscape. and discovered something that changed their lives forever. You can dig a trench. Not just to dig, but to dig easily. A fresh, just-opened shoe is so soft, It can be cut with a knife. Literally with a knife. Or a pointed stick. Or a stone maul. A person with the simplest tool He could excavate a room in tuff within a few days. And when the room is ready and the air penetrates inside, The dough begins to harden. Chemical reaction with oxygen and carbon dioxide transforms soft rock into hard stone, which has stood for centuries. Nature created the perfect building material. Soft to process, but hard after it. Modeling clay that turns into concrete. The first inhabitants of Cappadocia, These were apparently the Hittites. one of the great civilizations of the Bronze Age Quickly assessed the possibilities. Why build a house out of stones, Can it be carved directly into the rock? Why build walls if walls already exist? Just remove the extra part. People began cutting down homes built in stone cones. First, simple caves, then rooms, Then high-rise buildings. Each chimney turned into a residential tower. The first floor is a barn for livestock. The second one – the kitchen and the pantry. Third – living rooms. The fourth — the dovecote. Staircases were carved directly into the rocks. Windows pierced the walls. Chimneys for fireplaces were brought to the surface through natural fractures. Outside – a stone cone, indistinguishable from hundreds of others. Inside – warm and dry, A home protected from wind and enemies. TUF possesses another excellent property – thermal insulation. The porous structure of the rock holds air, And the stone walls work like a thermos. In winter, when the surface temperature is minus 20, The temperature inside the rocky dwelling is stable at +10 to +15. In summer, when the surface temperature is +35, Inside – the same 15. Year-round comfortable temperature Without heating or air conditioning. People who lived in the stone cones of Cappadocia had a constant climate in their homes long before that How anyone in the world invented central heating. Dovecotes on the upper floors are not a whim. Pigeons were a crucial resource. Their droppings were used as fertilizer. for vineyards and fields, as for the birds themselves—what a source of meat. Hundreds of pigeon towers still remain in Cappadocia to this day. cut into the rocks. Some of them are over a thousand years old, And doves still live in them. Dovecotes are often decorated with façades bright geometric patterns – red, blue, white which, according to local residents, attract birds. From afar, the colorful cliffs appear like an abstract art gallery, And this is probably the most unexpected application volcanic tuff in history. But cave houses in chimneys – This is only the tip of the iceberg. The most incredible part is below. Beneath the surface of Cappadocia lies an underground world, the scale of which is breathtaking. In 1963, a resident of the town of Derinkuyu, while repairing the wall in the basement of his house, He punched a hole, and beyond the wall, a passage opened up. The passage led into the room. From the room – a corridor. From the corridor – a staircase down. From the staircase – more rooms, More corridors, more staircases. The person has just opened the entrance. the largest underground city of the ancient world. Derynkyu – an underground complex, extending to a depth of more than 80 meters, with 18 levels connected by staircases shafts and tunnels. A city capable of accommodating up to 20,000 people together with the livestock, food supplies, and water. The city, the existence of which the local inhabitants knew There were entrances in their cellars, but whose scale no one could possibly imagine. When archaeologists began systematic research at Derinkuyu, They discovered the infrastructure. which made them doubt that What do they know about ancient civilizations? It was not just a set of caves. It was a planned city with thoughtful architecture. Stables and barns were located on the upper levels. Animals were kept closer to the surface. to ensure ventilation and facilitate manure removal. Below are the residential units. A room measuring between 3 and 5 meters with niches for oil lamps, stone shelves, carved sleeping niches. Even lower down – grain, oil, and wine warehouses. Large stone jugs sunk into the floor Stored the products at a constant temperature of about 15 degrees. Natural refrigerator operating without electricity. On one of the lower levels is a church with a cross-shaped hall and a stone altar. Derekh was used by Christian communities in the first centuries CE. And the underground church was their spiritual center. Next to it is a room that archaeologists interpreted as a school. A long hall with stone benches and niches for the teacher. Rooms of other purposes were also found. On one of the intermediate levels, archaeologists discovered a long room. with stone gutters running along the walls and several deep pits in the floor. At first, they took it for some kind of production workshop. Later it became clear—it was a grape press. The grapes were poured into the troughs and trodden with feet, Juice flowed into pits where it fermented and turned into wine. People hiding underground from the enemy army were making wine. There's something simultaneously absurd and deeply touching about it. Life went on even underground. People baked bread in stone ovens, the soot from which is still visible on the ceilings. They prepared food over open fires, the smoke from which was vented through ventilation shafts. The children were playing in the corridors. Children's drawings were found on the walls, scratched with a sharp stone. The elders sat by the oil lamps. Young couples probably got married and had children right here, at a depth of 50 meters, in rooms where the sun has never been seen. The toilets deserve special mention. Yes, there were toilets in the underground city. And they were engineered with technical proficiency that surpassed their time. Toilets were located on the periphery of each level. in dead-end corridors with separate ventilation. Waste flowed down vertical shafts into deep collection pits on the lower levels. isolated from residential areas and water sources. The system was primitive by modern standards. But it worked and allowed thousands of people to live underground for weeks without epidemics. But the most brilliant part is the engineering systems. Ventilation was provided by 52 vertical shafts, pierced from the surface down to the lowest levels. These mines operated like giant lungs. Warm air rose upward through them, drawing in fresh air through the entrances and horizontal tunnels. The system was so effective, Even at a depth of 80 meters, the air remained breathable. Some mines simultaneously served as wells. Groundwater accumulated at their bottom, which was drawn up with buckets on ropes. Water supply for an underground city with a population of 20,000 people, a task that would still require a serious engineering project today. 3,000 years ago, they solved it using mines, ropes, and an understanding of hydrogeology. The defense was planned with no less care. Each level could be isolated from the others using stone disks – large round plates with a diameter of up to one and a half meters and weighing about 500 kilograms which came in from inside through the doorways and blocked them. It was impossible to roll out such a disc from the outside. He had no handles, and he was pressing against a special groove. that did not allow him to move backward. The enemy, having penetrated one level, found itself trapped. could neither get up nor go down. The defenders, retreating to the lower levels, could hold out for weeks. feeding on reserves and breathing through ventilation shafts. Traps had been set up in the corridors. Narrow passages through which only one person could move perfect bottle necks where one defender with a spear could hold back a hundred attackers. In some places, the ceilings were deliberately lowered. so that the enemy cannot swing his sword. Holes were cut into the floor. through which hot oil or boiling water was poured onto the heads of the attackers. The underground city was not merely a shelter. It was a fortress designed for defense. Derinkuyu is the largest, but not the only, underground city in Cappadocia. Kaimakly is located several kilometers away from it – Another underground complex descending eight levels below ground. Between Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı, according to local residents and some archaeologists, There is an underground tunnel approximately nine kilometers long. connecting two cities. This tunnel has not yet been fully explored. Landslides and floods make the work dangerous, Yet its existence is confirmed by geophysical data. If it is real, this means the underground network of Cappadocia was not a set of isolated shelters, and a connected system—the underground counterpart of the surface road network. Over two hundred underground cities have been discovered in Cappadocia. and settlements of various sizes. From small shelters housing two or three dozen people to giants like Derinkuyu. Archaeologists are confident that far more remains to be discovered. In 2014, during construction work in the town of Nevshehir, the provincial capital, Another underground city has been discovered. preliminary estimates of its size indicate that He could even be larger than Derinkuyu. Excavations are ongoing, but it is already clear – The underground world of Cappadocia is much more extensive, what was considered ten years ago. The discovery in Nevşehir occurred in the typical manner characteristic of Cappadocia. Workers were demolishing old houses to build a new residential complex. And the bulldozer fell into the void. Beneath the foundation of the house where people had lived for decades, turned out to be an entrance to an underground city, about which the owners had no idea. Construction was halted, The archaeologists descended downward. and discovered a system of tunnels and chambers, whose preliminary assessment indicated a city capable of accommodating up to 30,000 people. If this assessment is confirmed, Nevshir will become the largest underground city in the world. overshadowing Derinkuyu. But the work is progressing slowly. Every meter must be cleared manually. Document each find. Reinforce each tunnel to prevent collapse. The underground Cappadocia gradually unfolds before us, centimeter by centimeter, just as three thousand years ago She delved into those who had created her. Who built these underground cities and when? A question without a clear answer. The ancient Greek historian Xenophon, living in the 4th century BCE, mentioned that the inhabitants of Anatolia They dig their homes underground. And what about their underground dwellings? Large enough for entire families with pets. It means underground settlements they already existed in his time, that is, at least 2,400 years ago. But many archaeologists consider the first tunnels were dug significantly earlier possibly by the Hittites in the Bronze Age, that is, 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. The Hittites, a great civilization that rivalled Egypt, had their capital at Hattusa a few hundred kilometers from Cappadocia And, of course, they were aware of the properties of the local tuff. After the Hittites, the underground cities were used and expanded Phrygians, Persians, Cappadocian Greeks, Romans, by early Christians, by the Byzantines and the Seljuk Turks. Every nation left its mark. Frigian grain storage niches on upper levels Roman engineering improvements in ventilation shafts Christian crosses carved into the walls Arabic script on stones at the entrances. A subterranean city is a polimpsest. text written over another text over the third, over the fourth. Each layer — an era, Every scratch on the wall is someone's life. Early Christians played a particularly significant role. In the first centuries of our era, when the Roman Empire persecuted followers of the new faith, Cappadocia became one of the main refuges of Christianity. Believers withdrew into underground cities, where the religious services were held, They baptized children and kept the dead. far from the eyes of Roman soldiers. Underground churches of Cappadocia — among the oldest in the world Some of them are over 1,700 years old. On their walls are primitive but touching frescoes. fishes, crosses, figures with halos Paintings of people praying in the dark And they believed that someday they would be able to pray at the holy place. But underground cities were not built all at once. They grew gradually, generation after generation. The first inhabitants cut down the upper levels, Simple cameras and corridors. Their children went down another floor. Grandchildren — one more. Each new generation expanded the city downward and outward. adding new rooms, new tunnels, new ventilation shafts The city grew like a tree, only not upward, but downward. Pushing roots ever deeper into the rocky flesh of the earth. By the time the underground cities reached their maximum size, presumably in the early Byzantine period, in the 6th–7th centuries AD, They were the result of thousands of years. continuous construction. No architect designed Derinkuyu entirely. His architect was time, and countless generations of nameless stonemasons, each of which added its own layer. Why did people need to go underground? The answer is simple and grim. To survive. Cappadocia is located at a crossroads of trade routes. between the East and the West, and for thousands of years Armies of conquerors passed through it. Hittites, Persians, Alexander's Macedonians Romans, Arabs, Mongols Turks, Seljuks, Crusaders. Each century brought a new enemy. For peaceful civilians, farmers, vineyard workers, shepherds The only salvation was to disappear. Hide there where the enemy will not find you. Underground. When an enemy army appeared on the horizon, The residents were gathering livestock, food supplies, and water. and descended underground. The inputs were masked. The stone doors closed and were buried under earth. The ventilation shafts were concealed by shrubbery. An empty village remained on the surface. Houses from which everything valuable has been removed. Fields where there's no one to rob. The enemy passed by, unaware, what was right under his feet, at a depth of dozens of meters Thousands of people are hiding with their cows, goats, and sacks of grain. When the danger had passed, after days or weeks, People emerged onto the surface and continued living as before. Until the next invasion. The most intensive period of use of underground cities dates from the 7th to 10th centuries. The time of Arab raids on Byzantium. Arab armies regularly invaded Anatolia. plundering and burning everything in its path. For the Christian population of Cappadocia Underground cities became the only means of survival. It was precisely during this period that the underground churches were destroyed. with frescoes that have survived to our times. The believers prayed deep underground, 50 meters below the surface. in the light of oil lamps, surrounded by stone walls, faces of the saints painted in vivid detail. Christ, the Theotokos, the Archangels gazed down from the ceilings of cave temples upon those who were praying. And these faces, painted 1,200 years ago, They're still watching everyone who goes down. But underground cities are not the only wonder of Cappadocia. On the surface—dozens of rock-hewn monasteries and churches, cut down in those very chimneys and stone cones. Güreme, a valley included in the UNESCO World Heritage List contains more than 30 rock-hewn churches with frescoes, dated from the 9th to the 13th centuries. The Dark Church of Koronlya to Kelse named so because light penetrates it through a single small window and the frescoes have remained in perfect condition – vivid, intense, as if painted yesterday. The color blue is lapis lazuli, brought from Afghanistan. Red – cinnabar. Gold – genuine leaf gold. In a cave church the size of a one-room apartment frescoes that are not inferior in quality to the decorations of Italian cathedrals Only they are several centuries older. Today, Cappadocia is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Hundreds of hot air balloons rise above the valley every morning – postcard view that has become a symbol of Turkey Tourists fly above the chimneys, photographing the landscape. and land to drink tea. They enter underground cities. They can see only the top 2-3 levels out of 18. The lower ones are closed. Collapses, flooding, insufficient ventilation They make the deep levels dangerous for unprepared visitors. Even the upper levels make a strong impression. You descend a narrow staircase carved into the rock. The steps have been polished by millions of feet over thousands of years. The ceiling is descending. You crouch down, then squeeze sideways through a passage half a meter wide. These are the very bottle necks designed for defense. You pass by a round stone disc, locking mechanism, leaning against the wall. And you see, if you insert this disc into the opening, you'll be trapped. Behind the disc – hall. 5 meters by 3, low ceiling, recesses in the walls. People lived here. Eli slept, gave birth to children, and died. And no one here saw the light except those who brought it with them. in the form of an oil lamp a thousand years ago or as an LED flashlight today. On the walls – tool marks. Semicircular grooves from a chisel, arranged in rows like lines of text. Each furrow is one strike. Each strike is a moment in someone's life. Thousands of impacts per square meter of wall. Millions – for each level. Billions—enough for the entire city. When you stand in these corridors and look at these grooves, You do not see a stone; you see time. A millennium of patient, stubborn, heroic labor, turning a mountain of ash into a city of life. What lies at the very bottom of Derimkuyu? at level 18, at a depth of 80 meters Only archaeologists who have been there know. And they speak of rooms filled with absolute silence. About the air that had not changed, perhaps for centuries. About stone walls with traces of tools preserved on them. Grooves left by chisels, made by human hands which three thousand years ago dug their way into the darkness. There is something profoundly human about this story. People who built the underground cities of Cappadocia were not great architects. They left no names, wrote no treatises, The drawings were not created. They were ordinary people, peasants, shepherds, vineyard workers, who wanted only one thing — to survive. And for survival, they bit into the stone, generation after generation, meter after meter, level after level. They didn't know they were creating a miracle of engineering. They were just digging. Because it was dangerous above and safe below. Because enemies came and went, but the stone remained. Because the only thing that stood between them and death was It is a layer of volcanic rock that they learned how to turn into a home. A city inside a volcano — not a metaphor, but a literal truth. Volcanic ash erupted millions of years ago It turned into stone. The stone turned into a fantastical landscape. The landscape became home to people. People carved an entire world into it, with streets, houses, churches, stables, schools and traps for enemies. The volcano that millions of years ago buried this land under the ash of death, It became a shelter of life for its inhabitants. This is perhaps the most beautiful irony that geology can produce. And the most convincing example of that is What can a person armed with a simple tool accomplish? with a gentle stone and an unshakable will to live.