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Avanos is a town and district of Nevşehir Province in the
Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revo ...
region of
Central Anatolia The Central Anatolia Region ( tr, İç Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Ankara. Other big cities are Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Sivas, and Aksaray. Located in Central Turkey, it is b ...
,
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
, located north of Nevşehir, the capital city of the province. In 2011 the population of Avanos town was 16,000. Historically known as Venessa, modern Avanos stands on the banks of the longest river of Turkey, the Kızılırmak (Red River), the ancient Halys. The district covers an area of , with an average elevation is . The highest point is Mt. İsmail Sivrisi at . Avanos' most important industry is pottery production, an industry which probably dates back to Hittite times and which makes use of clay from the red silt of the Kızılırmak. The town is also a popular tourist destination because of its attractive old town and riverside location. Like the rest of Cappadocia, Avanos has a continental climate with very hot, dry summers, and cold, snowy winters.


History

Old Avanos is riddled with a network of small underground "cities" which may once have been residential but are now mainly used by the many pottery enterprises. Although there is no documentary evidence to prove when these structures were carved out of the earth, it is probable that work on some of them began in the Hittite period. As Venessa, the ancient Avanos was the third most important town in the
Kingdom of Cappadocia Cappadocia ( el, Καππαδοκία) was a Hellenistic-era Iranian kingdom centered in the historical region of Cappadocia in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). It developed from the former Achaemenid satrapy of Cappadocia, and it was founded b ...
(332BC-17AD) according to the geographer
Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...
. Although it was the site of an important temple of Zeus, nothing remains of it today. In
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
and
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
times Avanos had a large Christian population who were responsible for the rock-cut Dereyamanlı Kilisesi. Unusually, this is still occasionally used even today. Most of the visible remains of Avanos' history date from the 19th and early 20th centuries and take the form of many impressive stone houses, mostly built by the now-lost Greek and Armenian populations. These houses are to be found in the older part of the city on the northern bank of the river. Avanos expanded rapidly in the early 2000s and there is now a lot of modern housing on the southern side of the river which was extensively landscaped and developed for recreational purposes in the years after 2010.


Attractions around Avanos


Çalış

* In 2019 unexpected flooding in the small settlement of Çalış, north of Avanos town, led to the discovery of an approximately 5,000-year-old three-story underground town referred to as “Gir-Gör” (Enter and See) by locals. The five-kilometre-long "city" contained homes, tunnels, and places of worship. A small human figurine was discovered inside the site. According to the locals, the site was considered a source of healing water and was called “ Ceasar’s bath. It is not currently open to the public.” *
Zelve The Zelve Monastery is a Byzantine-era monastery that was carved into the rock in pre-iconoclastic times. It is part of the Zelve Open Air Museum, located between Ürgüp and Avanos, Turkey. Remains The remains of the Zelve monastery complex a ...
About from Avanos and from Paşabağ, the site of Zelve was developed across three valleys on the steep northern slopes of Aktepe. It is not known exactly when people began living in the rock-cut dwellings in a troglodytic lifestyle common to other places in the region such as Uçhisar,
Göreme Göreme (; grc, Κόραμα, Kòrama) is a village of around 2,000 people in Nevşehir province in Central Anatolia. It is well known for its fairy chimneys ( Turkish: ''peribacalar''), eroded rock formations, many of which were hollowed out ...
and Cavuşin. An important
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...
community lived in Zelve which was the religious centre for the area from the 9th to the 13th centuries. The first religious seminars for priests were held in the vicinity. * Paşabağ and Devrent At Paşabağ there are a large number of distinctive fairy chimneys with particularly sharp points and thick trunks. There is even a police station inside one of them. Devrent is known for rock formations into which people read carvings such as a camel. *
Çavuşin Çavuşin is a village in the district of Avanos in Nevşehir province in the Cappadocia region of Turkey. It is on the road between Avanos and Göreme, about five kilometres north of Göreme. The older part of the village lies on and around a la ...
The impressively frescoed Church of St John the Baptist (also known as the Nicephorus Phocas Church or the Great Pigeon House) stands beside the Avanos-Göreme road on the edge of the village of Çavuşin. It dates back to 964-965 AD. A second church, also called St John the Baprtst, is harder to find inside the old part of the village. * Güllüdere Dating back to the 6th or 7th century, the church of St. Agathangelus is located on the far left side of the Güllüdere valley about from the village of Çavuşin. The nave is square and ends in a single broad apse added to the main structure in the 9th or 10th century. The two or three layers of frescoes in the apse indicate that it was repainted regularly. Symbols of the Gospel writers are placed on the right and left of an enthroned Jesus. In the middle of the flat ceiling a relief cross is shown in the middle of a circle surrounded with palm leaves and garlands. It probably dates back to the Iconoclastic period. * Özkonak Underground City Located northeast of Avanos, this underground city was carved out of the northern slopes of Mt. Idis in an area with many volcanic granite strata. Its extensive galleries are spread out over a large area and connected to each another by tunnels. The city was discovered in 1972 by the local muezzin and farmer Latif Acar while he was trying to discover where the water disappeared to when he was tending his crops. He uncovered one underground room which later turned out to be a whole "city" which might have housed an incredible 60,000 people for up to three months at a time. A total of 10 floors were discovered, dropping to a depth of 40m below ground, although only four are open to the public.


See also

*
Churches of Göreme, Turkey Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...
* Derinkuyu Underground City * Kaymaklı Underground City *
Mokissos Mokissos or Mokisos ( grc, Μωκισσός or Μωκησός) or Mokison (Μωκισόν) was a town of ancient Cappadocia. The Romans called the city Mocisus or Mocissus, and Mocisum, and after the city was rebuilt by the Byzantine Emperor Justi ...
* Amaseia,
Amasya Amasya () is a city in northern Turkey and is the capital of Amasya Province, in the Black Sea Region. It was called Amaseia or Amasia in antiquity."Amasya" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ...


Notes


References

* *


External links


District governor's official website
*
Map of Avanos district

District municipality's official website

Maps of Avanos



Hundreds of pictures of Avanos

Travel Information for Avanos

Information about Pottery and the Hair Museum of Avanos
{{Coord, 38, 42, 54, N, 34, 50, 48, E, region:TR_type:city, display=title Nevşehir Towns in Turkey Cappadocia History of Nevşehir Populated places in Nevşehir Province Districts of Nevşehir Province Byzantine church buildings in Turkey