This picture shows a number of manmade caves, located in the Erdemli Valley outside the town of Yeşilhisar in Cappadocia, Turkey.

Cappadocia became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 in recognition of its cultural and historical heritage. While plenty of other sites are also memorable for the presence of cave homes, Cappadocia is unique in Turkey – and the rest of the World – for the sheer number of such dwellings. Literally thousands of manmade caves pepper the rock walls of the area’s valleys. As many as 1,000 are of early Christian cave churches and there are around 200 subterranean settlements that provided shelter to up to 10,000 people.

Like the caves pictured above, most of those in the Erdemli Valley are empty, the remainder being used by locals as storage and stables for their food and animals. That said, while the upper caves may not look in accessible, they are connected to lower ones and can be visited via vertical and horizontal tunnels.

The caves in the Erdemli Valley are not so known as well as the others caves in Cappadocia. If you ask 100 people in Cappadocia, only one may know about Erdemli Valley. Even people in the tourism trade may not know about them. I know about them because I went there under the guidance of the museum director.

People started to carve the soft volcanic rocks about 5,000 years ago for many purposes and some continue to do so to this day. Almost every aspect of domestic life, including food storage, pigeon houses, stables, wineries, churches and shelters, had to be carved by hand. The caves stretch from about 100 meters underground to about 100 meters above at the top of rock hills.

Cappadocia used to be one of the foremost religious, historical and cultural areas of the Anatolia region. The rich combination of these factors and the unique natural surroundings has turned Cappadocia into an important tourist area of Turkey. Cappadocia is probably the country’s most famous destination for independent travellers.

Today, the caves are used for different purposes. Many of the old caves have been turned into museums, restaurants, bars, cave hotels, souvenir shops or wineries, and can be experienced as part of an exhaustive tour of the area. They continue fulfil their centuries-old purpose by bringing life and activity to Cappadocia.

For more about Cappadocia, read A Hidden Side of Turkey’s Cappadocia: How to Go Where Others Don’t and Cappadocia Unearthed: The Handicrafts Renaissance in Avanos, Turkey.

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