Cappadocia Underground Cities

There is a connection between man and the underground with a much more profound nature than we may think. I admit this is a strange thing to say if your are not a geologist, building a metro line or digging for treasure. In fact, as the name of the article says we will be in the third category yet we will not stop here. For a period I had an interest in the architecture of subway stations, mostly in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus which culminated with me searching for material on DUMBs (Deep underground military bases), don't ask me how. A couple of months and some head scratching later and here I am, talking about the Underground Cities of Cappadocia.

Cappadocia has a great number of such subterranean system, some people say 200 although more realistic estimates point to around 40, with many still not discovered or excavated. The largest are Derinkuyu and Kaymakli which are believed to date back to Hittite times. As time passed, the tunnels have been extended and ultimately served as shelter for thousands of Christians.

The Hittites were an evolved bronze age civilization which was among the first to use iron and reached its peak around the 14th century BC. Around 1180 BC the empire disintegrated and various "neo-Hittite" states were formed under Assyrian rule, sometimes engaged in wars with one another, this until ~700BC. The Persian conquest followed between the 6th and 4th centuries and then Alexander the Great and the spread of Hellenism in the 4th century. Apart from Xenophon I don't know any other ancient text describing underground homes in central Turkey. I also want to mention that the Hittites had an Indo-European language and it seems that they used the Akkadian cuneiform writing system. I don't know how Hittite texts are being translated but it seems strange that these underground systems have not been mentioned in any of them.

Recent studies have concluded that the Phrygians, a people with a language much more related to Greek than to Anatolian languages arrived in the peninsula around the time of the downfall of the Hittite Empire and so the underground cities, or a part of them, can also be attributed to this civilization. Some researchers even say that these underground cities are described in the Vendidad, in Fargard 2 (click here to read). I however am reluctant to embrace this opinion not because it couldn't be true, but because more research must be made towards this direction.

I will now show you some pictures from a couple of these underground cities so you can imagine how life was in them.

Derinkuyu

Kaymakli

 Saint Mercurius

For more info:

Countdown to opening of Cappadocia's second underground city [Saint Mercurius]
arhZONA - Prodzemni Gradovi
Ancient Standard: Derinkuyu - Turkey's Underground City

Ignoring the Obvious?

Time for some politics again, sometimes I feel like giving up on writing about global politics because some things never change... although, if we remain silent things will be even worse. Warning, this post might make you think. Right now Iranians are voting for their representatives in the Majlis (Iranian Parliament) and for some time I was preparing to point out the obvious, Iran is the only democracy in the Middle East, well... maybe with the exception of Turkey. What, you thought I forgot about Israel or that I'm "antisemitic"? Haha, Israel is a fascist-like ethnic totalitarianism (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and apparently Jews survived the Holocaust to inflict it on others. I'm just pointing out the obvious, replace Israel with an individual and you will surely see that individual as totally fucked-up.

On the other hand Iran is the black sheep of the neighborhood, ever asked why? You may say nukes, I will ask you, what nukes? Did Iran start any wars? When was the last time when you heard about Iranian soldiers killing women and children from helicopters and being proud of it, or is Iran the one who gives weapons to drug trafficking cartels in exchange for drugs? Any ethnic cleansing in Iran that I didn't know about? I am tired with all the lies and all the mindless people who bow down to retarded propaganda. Iran should be a regional power because it proved that it is capable of sustaining industrial, scientific and economic developments even with sanctions. Why, in the name of God, people aren't taking to the streets in protest against the relationship between the west and Saudi Arabia, is it more "democratic" to have splendid ties with an absolute monarchy? They don't even have a constitution in the modern sense of the word!

Libya... give some Hustlers, beer and drugs to the predominantly young population of Libya and you have the heroic rebels. Those people lived very well, free housing, health-care, education, jobs... now what? Now they don't even have enough money to pay the wages and has any human rights moron seen how the heroic rebels treat the "opposition"? Or they are not allowed to have an opposition? Gaddafi wasn't a saint but at least he had a vision for a powerful Africa. Is Obama a saint... or any other Bilderberg dumbfuck? Or any simple individual even.

Syria, another playground for American arrogance. Who the hell can think that arming the opposition is a good idea? Oh, McCain and Hilary can, and if they can, than that makes it law for the rest of the mindless sheep that vote for them. Those who give death as a solution should be the first to get a dose of their own medicine. This cycle must stop, someone must somehow put an end to this dark age, if Jews will put aside their stupid religious nationalism, if Americans will put an end to their imperialism, if North Korea will renounce it's psychopathic society and so on, then maybe we will deserve to eat the food this Earth gives us and drink the water the rivers and lakes give us. All 6 billion+ of us must change, we should love work, love beauty and knowledge, strive for justice, peace...

Why do you ignore the obvious?

The Ziggurat at Ur

Around 2100 BCE the king Ur-Nammu, founder of the Sumerian 3rd dynasty of Ur, started the construction of a series of ziggurat buildings, it is also important to mention that in his time the first legal code was written. He was eventually deified because of his piety and his reputation of building and restoring shrines.

The Ziggurat from Ur is situated in modern day Tell el-Mukayyar, in Iraq. As I said before, the project was started by Ur-Nammu, but it was finished by his son, King Shulgi. With time, the building suffered a series of restorations, the most important are in neo-Babylonian times (6 BCE), by king Nabonidus and it is believed that he greatly modified the original structure, and in the 1980s, when Saddam Husein ordered the rebuilding of the facade and the main staircase.

It consisted of three inward sloping platforms with the base measuring approx. 60 by 40 meter. Because only the first platform is left standing we can not say for sure how tall the structure was, estimates are around 42 meters. On top, a temple dedicated to the moon god Nannu was constructed, it was most probably an enclosed rectangular building.

The temple and the upper stages were accessible only to priests, so the monument was not dedicated to ordinary people, in fact, it was considered to be the home on Earth of the particular god, in our case, Nannu. The one responsible for uncovering this treasure was Sir Leonard Woolley who excavated the remains between 1920 and 1930.

The guide showing a drawing of how the ziggurat originally might of looked.