Göreme Historical National Park (; tr, Göreme Tarihî Milli Parkı) is a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

in central Turkey. It occupies an area of nearly 100 km² (39 sq mi) and is located in

Nevşehir Province Nevşehir Province ( tr, , from the Persian compound نو شهر ''Now-shahr'' meaning "new city") is a province in central Turkey with its capital in Nevşehir. Its adjacent provinces are Kırşehir to the northwest, Aksaray to the southwest, N ...

. It became a UNESCO

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 1985 under the name Goreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia. The park features a rocky, water- and wind-eroded landscape with a network of ancient, interconnecting underground settlements.

Description

The National Park is located in the volcanic region of

Mount Hasan Mount Hasan ( tr, Hasan Dağı) is a volcano in Anatolia, Turkey. It has two summits, the high eastern Small Hasan Dagi and the high Big Hasan Dagi, and rises about above the surrounding terrain. It consists of various volcanic deposits, includ ...

and

Mount Erciyes Mount Erciyes ( tr, Erciyes Dağı), also known as Argaeus ( Greek: ) is a volcano in Turkey. It is a large stratovolcano surrounded by many monogenetic vents and lava domes, and one maar. The bulk of the volcano is formed by lava flows of an ...

in Central Anatolia, in the vicinity of

Ürgüp Ürgüp ( el, Προκόπιο ''Prokópio,'' or Cappadocian Greek: ''Prokópi'', ota, Burgut Kalesi) is a town and district of Nevşehir Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. It is located in the historical region of Cappadocia, a ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. The park area consists of plateaus and high hills, dissected by streams and river valleys carved out by the water, the valleys having steeply sloping sides. Part of this rugged area consists of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

and thick beds of

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...

. The tuff is the result of ash emitted from volcanoes millions of years ago, which solidified into soft rock, and has since been overlain by solidified lava which forms a protective capping. This has been eroded over the millennia to form the multi-coloured cliffs, rock towers, pillars, tent rocks and

fairy chimney A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, or earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock formed by erosion. Hoodoos typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from th ...

rock formations present in the park. Love Valley is known for its fairy chimneys. This area experiences annual precipitation of and there is little vegetation except in riverine corridors. The earliest signs of monastic activity in

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 ...

can be traced back to the 4th century when small anchorite communities, following the teachings of Basileios the Great, Bishop of

Kayseri Kayseri (; el, Καισάρεια) is a large industrialised city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri province. The Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality area is composed of five districts: the two central districts of Kocasina ...

, started to inhabit the cells hewn in the rock. Later, the communities took refuge together in underground villages to avoid attacks by marauding Arabs.

Underground dwellings

People have made use of the soft tuff rock to hollow out underground dwellings. The earliest monastic activity in Cappadocia is thought to have been in the fourth century when

anchorite In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress) is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. While anchorites are ...

s started hewing out cells from the rock. To resist Arab marauders, they linked these cells and created underground communities, with chapels, store rooms, and living quarters. Villages and small towns were developed in this way, and by 842, underground churches were being richly decorated with coloured paintings. Nowadays people don't live far underground as in the past when they were hiding or fleeing enemies. But some people still live in cave dwellings that have been made into homes, with a door/opening to daylight at ground level. Unfortunately, it has been found that long-term cave dwellers experience an unexpectedly high incidence of

mesothelioma Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs (known as the mesothelium). The most common area affected is the lining of the lungs and chest wall. Less commonly the lining ...

, a form of cancer. This has been linked to the inhalation of erionite fibres, a mineral common in tuff formations.

References

{{authority control National parks of Turkey World Heritage Sites in Turkey Cultural history of Turkey Landforms of Nevşehir Province Tourist attractions in Nevşehir Province Former national parks