Nevzat

From inside an abandoned house

This morning, I met Nevzat in Uchisar village. Uchisar is at the peak of Cappadocia. The old village is made of an irregular terrace with houses extending from the side of the hill. The stone houses don’t exactly cling to the hill because they’re connected to caves and therefore extend from it. In other words, the houses are constructed and carved. Some houses are in disrepair, the caves inside filled with dirt and rubble. Some of the houses are being restored. Nevzat pointed at certain houses and told me the nationalities of the people who had bought them. French, Japanese, German. A little further down the hill is a series of fairy chimneys, our destination.

Nevzat

We followed a road I had not yet explored, down the side of the hill. I made him stop in the empty houses, and despite the snow, we managed to get to second floors. He explained to me which rooms were for storage, which were kitchens with a tandir, a hole in the floor that served as an oven. From there, we entered a cave structure, an apartment-like building with many houses, kitchens, dove cotes... I would never have dared enter by myself for fear that I would collapse with a floor. Most of the time I wasn’t scared, yet we did cross some slightly treacherous territory. At times, we had to exit the cave interior and climb across the exterior. When you touch wet tufa, your hand gets a bit sandy. I was a little afraid I would slip and fall while moving from one cave to another. Nevzat always took my hand when it was a bit iffy, and he pulled me up more than one snow-covered tufa staircase. I was struck by the contrast between my very white and his brown, farmer like hands.

I wish I could show you every detail, the pigeon cotes with little niches, almost like those for religious statues. Some of the rooms had few niches, others were dedicated solely to the birds, with rows of niches, places for food, a carved column in the center. Some of the chapels were turned into pigeon houses during the Ottoman period. Most that were originally carved by the Ottomans have paintings on the exteriors where the birds entered, in the same burnt sienna color as in the churches. Since these were on plaster, they are better preserved. Some of the Arabic is probably legible, and there are pictures of men on horseback, birds, and other symbols. I tried to ask Nevzat why the cotes almost always have paintings. He thought I asked what they were for, and explained how the inhabitants collected the pigeon poop, put it into packets, and carried it to their gardens by horse. I skimmed a book I just bought on Cappadocia, that explains that it was believed that pigeons are attracted to color. There are very few birds in them now. Nevzat explained to me, if I understood correctly, that bats killed the birds, sucked their blood and left the dead bodies.
We climbed up and down winding staircases, looked up through chimneys. Nevzat showed me where wine and pekmez (grape pectin, a kind of molasses still eaten in Turkey) were made in rectangular structures, where the animals ate in the stables, where horses were kept (now how the hell a horse got up into the fairy chimney I do not know), where the bakeries were. In one kitchen, we entered a slightly twisting tunnel. Nevzat walked backwards, bent over. I followed with my little flashlight, equally bent over. The tunnel circled around the kitchen, and we re-entered the room.
We made our way around the Uchisar hill, climbing, descending, not paying much attention to the snow. I took pictures like there’s no tomorrow, until, unfortunately my battery died about an hour into the tour. Where’s the charger? In Istanbul. Duh. When I get this problem solved, I’m going to hire Nevzat for another tour. And why not? This was the best 30YTL I’ve spent in a good long while.
Nevzat and I communicated quite well, even though my street Turkish doesn’t cover a lot of vocabulary and the accent is different than the one to which I am accustomed. I even think he got to kind of like me because the snow didn’t bother me, and I was adventurous.
He knew that I’m interested in churches and chapels, so these were our main goals. There are a surprising number of chapels in Uchisar, tiny ones carved into the upper parts of the fairy chimneys. Many are closed due to erosion, but we did manage to go into about 6 of them. Each one was a little surprise, tiny barrel vaults with apses, sometimes a bit of a dome, a small decoration carved in a ceiling. Some had graduated pillasters, niches for what I assume may have been icons or candles. One had a grave in the floor. One had regularly spaced incisions that reached the summit of the dome. These were painted directly on the stone in a burnt sienna color, nearly the same as the henna on my fingers. Needless to say, I was completely captivated.
The previous day, I had learned that a homeless man lives in one of the fairy chimneys underneath a reachable chapel. Homeless? This guy has a satellite dish on the exterior of his cave house. I peeked in the open door. It looked quite comfy cozy to me. This was one relatively easy chapel to reach as there is a staircase with a railing up half of the exterior. What kind of upset me was the rubbish he stored in the chapel, old cans, bits of beds, wood, bottles. And this was a lovely little one.
We looped around the Museum Hotel towards 1001 Nights hotel. There are a monastery and at least one chapel in the rock structure. This was the one scary part. We had to do a little rock climbing to reach the interior. Nevzat managed to get me in and out without a problem, though I admit to sliding on my backside to descend. I’m happy to say the climb was worth it. Each little chapel, not matter how small, has slight differences. This one is blackened on the inside. Recently I learned that fires were lit in many churches to deliberately cover the paintings in soot. Whether or not this church was indeed painted is difficult to say.
Down again, around more cave houses and fairy chimneys. There is a little tea house below. In the summer it must be beautiful. We sat out on the balcony and warmed ourselves in the sun. Despite the level of snow, we visited the one church I had found last year, near the shepherd’s cave. This is a larger carved structure, with a blackened apse and now blocked windows. One of the larger window frames is decorated with something I would love to have, a piece of wood with diagonally shaped holes carved in it. Many of these retain the original volcanic rocks that were pushed into them. This technique, of forcing rocks into wood is reminiscent of the duven, threshers, that I like so much. Yes, they’re tools, but I find then quite sculptural. Nevzat pointed out the hole in the ground near the apse/altar space that looks like a tandir. It’s actually a baptismal font. Last year, I had not noticed the bits of original Byzantine paintings that are barely visible: an outline of a saint here, a decorative motif there.
From the church, we climbed upwards towards the castle. I thought the tour was over, but no. Nevzat led me down some stairs, down a street, through a doorway and into the snow. We climbed to another chapel, this one next to a room recently used as a chicken coop. The rock itself was quite eroded, so much so that a large hole had formed. I regretted the camera problem because the sky was perfectly blue. It would have been a great photo.
We ended the tour with a cup of tea in Hasan’s cave store. I was invited to have hamsi, but I don’t think I’ll make it since I have at least one more lesson this evening. Due to the snow, we weren’t able to reach a few other places. Nevzat is happy to repeat and extend the tour next week.
Now I’m a bit sore from walking in the snow and caves for three hours. I’m not complaining.