|
|
|
HISTORICAL
SITES
|
|
|
|
 UCHISAR
|
 Uçhisar
is situated at the highest point in the region, on the Nevþehir-Göreme
road, just 7km from Nevþehir. It is not known when Uçhisar
was first inhabited, however, in style, it resembles Ortahisar
and the Selime Kalesi (castle) in the Ihlara Region.
The top of the citadel provides a magnificent
panorama of the surronuding area. Many rooms hollowed out into
the rock are connected to each other with stairs, tunnels and
passages. At the entrances of the rooms, there are millstone
doors, just like the ones in the underground settlements, used
to control access to these places. Due to the erosion in places
of this multi-leveled castle, it is unfortunately not possible
to reach all the rooms. The fairy chimneys to the west, east
and north of Uçhisar were hollowed out and used as graves during
the Roman period. Inside these rock cut tombs, the entrances
of which generally fac qest, are klines or stone slabs on which
the bodies were laid. Many rock cut churches have been discovered
not only on the skirts of the castle but also inside it. The
reason for this may be the fact that Göreme, having numoreus
churches and monasteries, is very close to Uçhisar. The simple
Byzantine graves on top of the castle are not very interesting
due to the fact that they have been eroded and ransacked. It
is said that in towns with citadels, e.g. Uçhisar, Ortahisar
and Ürgüp (Bashisar), long defence tunnels reached far into
the surrounding areas. However, since the tunnels have collapsed
in places, this theory cannot be confirmed, but is a popular
myth as to the great distances they cover.
Beside toms, many dove-cotes were hollowed out
into the castle, fairy chimneys around it and on the clifffaces.
The local farmers, although they did not have much land,were
in need of goods crops. Knowing that dove excrement could help
them with this problem and increase the amount of crop they
would get, farmers hollowed out dove-cotes into the sides of
fairy chimneys and on the cliff gaces. Later the fertilizer
was gathered and used in the fields.
|
