In Persian, “The country of beautiful horses”, Cappadocia occured by abrading of soft layers made of lavas and ash sprayed from Erciyes, Hasandagi and Güllüdag with rain and wind along millions of years. This formation is named as fairy chimneys among people. It hosted them. While the formation of these fairy chimneys continued, people built houses and churches for Christianity by hollowing them out. They decorated the churches with frescos and carried their civilisation for today. Traditional Cappadocia houses which were hollowed out on rocks and pigeon rooms provided an original view for the region even today.
Here, nature embraced human beings as much as it occured nowhere. Both lower and upper soil never returned anyone. It hosted them even in the most merciless situations of history. The places of today and past connect themselves here. So, it makes the history enjoyable.
Embraced by the Red River, Cappadocia is the world of dreams beyond being the first place of civilisation in Anatolia. That is why it was located in Anatolian mosaics project. How could the houses be in an environment like that? Cappadocia houses were built either by hollowing out rocks or by cutting stones. As the only architectural material, stone can easly be processed because it is soft when it is taken off the mine as volcanic state of the rgeion. Nevertheless, it turns to durable building material after it touches on air. Stone work is an architectural tradition here because the material is abundant and it can be processed easily.
Wards show the features of settlement which surround square in which there is a religious centre or a fountain. Streets suit topographic features. They are generally in criterion that a loaded beast of burden can pass togother with a man. In some settlement, there are effects of places in intimate and variable perspectives. Large blocks of constructions with wooden props or stone consoled projection, and sometimes walls of a high garden or a courtyard limit these organic streets according to local features.
Cappadocia Houses
It is formed of a garden, courtyard or places that surround the courtyard. Everything is designed according to the life style or daily actions of the user. Generally they can be classified as:
being practical functionally adaptation to environmental factors. To gain integrity by starting from the seed and improving it out for solution. To take the nearest surroundings into consideration for choosing materials. Simplicity before mass effect for solution and structure.
The plan in Cappadocia houses is formed by lining rooms up on a hall. Types, largeness and features of the room seldom change. Hall which is the area among rooms is changable with all features. An architectureal structure of arch and vault is common for them. The material for courtyard and doors is wood. The arched doors are decorated with stylized ivy or emblem motives. The distance between consoles in the distance of floors is filled up with motives of emblem in 2 or 3 rows, star, flabellum, whirligig and stylized plant. Windows are done in two types: winged or guillotine.
