Housing & Troglodyte Architecture

Living in Caves
The earliest indication of such caves is given for Armenia by the Greek author Xenophon, who in 401 BC passed through the highlands of Cappadocia together with Greek mercenaries on the way to Persia. He reports on the how wine, grain, fruit and vegetables were stored in underground magazines. Pliny the elder tells in the 1st century AD of how grain was stored in subterranean silos in Cappadocia, a practice that is still very much alive, and apparently kept well for decades.

“Fairy Chimneys” 'peri bahcalari' (cave cones)
Even if Göreme is not alone in the world in having rock-cut dwellings that are still in use, they are, however, the most interesting due to their unique historical and geomorphological connections and their versatility. Göreme has a large number of what are termed fairy chimneys – tufa cones that have been hollowed out over the centuries to produce several storeys of dwellings and storage chambers extending right up to the peak. As such, then, Göreme is the only place in the world with free-standing "sky-scraper" caves. An advantage of the topography is that it allows the cave dwellings to be lit with relative ease, making them anything but the cliché picture of damp, dingy “holes”. In addition, the dry, breathable tuff stone also ensures a pleasant climate inside.

Spatial arrangement of a typical dwelling in Göreme

The threshold (esik)
The threshold of the door to the courtyard is the transition point between public and private life – the self-enclosed space belonging to the family. A wall several metres high encloses the inner courtyard, onto which open the family’s various private rooms. Consequently a connection between "inside" and "outside" is only possible via a door, which can if necessary be firmly locked. In Göreme the stone frame around the door is often strongly decorated. Inside begins the secure life space of the family, the private sphere which strangers will only enter if they have been welcomed in. The women of Göreme often sit on the doorstep and attend to their daily chores, or visit others in the neighbourhood and sit on their doorsteps (es¸ikte oturmak), exchange the latest gossip, watch the comings and goings on the streets, and keep an on their children as they play.

The inner courtyard (avlu)
The inner courtyard is the open part of a household, but it can also be closed off to others if need be. When the weather allows, a large amount of the housework, such as cooking on an open fire, chopping wood or washing the laundry, is done here. An avlu mostly faces to the south, so it is also well-suited to drying fruit and other crops. Since the women are "at home" in their avlu, things are a lot more relaxed and casual here and the still frequently-worn headscarf can be taken off. The avlu is the actual centre of the household, from which the majority of the rooms of the house can be reached directly.

The half-open hall / vestibule (cardak)
A notably decorative feature special to Göreme and the neighbouring villages of Cappadocia is the half-open vestibule, comprised of pointed vaults, which creates a kind of intermediary zone between the inside and the world outside (1). This roofed-in space provides protection from the elements, even though the front side is open, and has many functions in normal daily life. It is also the location for the fireplace or tandir, which is set deep in the floor and equipped with a channel to provide air, and which is chiefly used for baking unleavened bread (yufka) and filled pastry turnovers (gözleme). It is also used, however, to cook other dishes in fireproof clay jugs, which are often allowed to simmer for hours on end in the glowing embers.

Living Rooms (odalar)
Unlike the living rooms in most western societies, the inhabitants of rural Turkey and thus traditional Göreme generally inhabit just one room, which meets a wide range of requirements in a most practical way. A room of this sort is always seen as “multi-functional”.

Taking off one’s shoes (seki alti)
The living rooms are always divided up into a number of parts. Traditionally there is a small area at the entrance set slightly below the living room as such, in which to remove one’s shoes before entering. According to Turkish thought, it is impure to step into the living room as such wearing dust-covered shoes. For this reason the main living area is richly covered with carpets and kelims, and traditionally slightly elevated at the sides to form platforms (sedir), which are likewise comfortably appointed with cushions and bolsters. Generally the end wall of the approx. 5 x 3 metre rooms have two windows that grant the people sitting on the sedir a good view of the world outside.

Multi-purpose rooms
The rooms, which consist of caves or normal rooms in houses with rounded arches, always have a number of small alcoves, cupboards and bedding compartments let into the walls. As a rule the rooms also have their own small wash-rooms, mostly concealed behind an inconspicuous door. Since these rooms serve a number of functions, the open space at the centre is used by day for meals, for which an easily transportable table-tray (sini) is brought in. In the evening the easily foldable mat-tresses are spread out on the same space for the night.

Fireplaces
Often the classical living rooms of Göreme have small, richly ornamented fireplaces, which in combi-nation with the charcoal pans set into the floor served as the traditional means of heating. Once the fire in the fireplace had burnt down, smoke-free embers were shovelled into these hollows, termed iskembe, and covered over with a frame draped with a large blanket (1). The inhabitants would then sit together around the iskembe and place their legs up to their thighs under the warm communal blanket. Sadly such cosy, time-tested methods are scarcely used any more, and in most cases this kind of heating has been replaced by charcoal stoves.

Storage rooms (ambar) and stables (ahir)
The majority of the rooms in the traditional dwellings of Göreme serve as storage spaces. The rooms, which often extend deep into the cliffs, are used for various purposes, depending on their position and how they have been fitted out. Along with stables and barns, the deep-lying, relatively damp rooms are used to store apples, while the drier rooms higher up are used for other foodstuffs. Particularly when the latter have been cut into the rock, they have a very even temperature and are exceptionally good for conserving food products.

Pleasant temperature
The Byzantine writer Skutariotes also reported in the 13th century on the excellent protection the tuff caves provide against the weather and the well-balanced temperatures they guarantee throughout the year. Thus the caves prove relatively warm and easy to heat during the cold Anatolian winters, and pleasantly cool during the hot summer months. Above all, the unleavened bread and harvests of fresh grapes remain edible for months on end, and it is also said that corn will germinate even after being kept in the caves for decades. Then as now, spacious subterranean depots located in the vari-ous neighbourhoods are used to amass and store large quantities of potatoes and citrus fruit before they are delivered to the markets in Turkey.

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