Kapadokia

Daerah di Anatolia kuno Cappadocia
Above: Gunung Aktepe dekat Göreme dan daerah berbatu (Rock Sites) di Kapadokia (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Location	Central Anatolia Region, Turki 38°39′30″N 34°51′13″E
State existed:	Quasi-independent in various forms until 17 AD
Historical capitals	Mazaca
Roman province	Cappadocia

Kapadokia ([bahasa Turki]] Kapadokya, from Greek: Καππαδοκία / Kappadokía, Persia: کاپادوکیه Kāpādōkiyeh; bahasa Inggris: Cappadocia, juga Capadocia) adalah daerah bersejarah di Anatolia Tengah, terutama di Provinsi Nevşehir di Turki.

Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia

Situs Warisan Dunia UNESCO
Kriteria	Mixed: i, iii, v, vii
Nomor identifikasi	357
Pengukuhan	1985 (9th)

Pada zaman Herodotus, Kapadokia dilaporkan meliputi seluruh daerah dari Gunung Taurus ke wilayah Euxine (Laut Hitam), dengan batas selatan rangkaian pegunungan Taurus yang memisahkannya dari daerah Kilikia, batas timur hulu sungai Efrat dan dataran tinggi Armenia, batas utara Pontus, dan batas barat Lycaonia serta bagian timur Galatia.

Nama ini secara tradisional digunakan dalam sumber-sumber Kristen sepanjang sejarah dan masih dipakai luas sebagai konsep turisme internasional di Turki untuk mendefinisikan daerah yang memiliki sejumlah keajaiban alam, khususnya "cerobong peri" (fairy chimney) dan warisan budaya Anatolia dan Turki yang unik.

Kapadokia juga disebut dalam Alkitab Kristen, antara lain dalam Kisah Para Rasul 2:9 sebagai salah satu daerah asal kelompok yang mendengarkan berita Injil pada hari Pentakosta tidak lama setelah peristiwa kematian dan kebangkitan Yesus Kristus.

A hot air balloon over Cappadocia

Berkas:Capadocia2006.jpg

Fairy chimneys di Cappadocia

After bringing the Persian Empire to an end, Alexander the Great tried to rule the area through one of his military commanders. But Ariarathes, a Persian aristocrat, somehow became king of the Cappadocians. Ariarathes I (332—322 BC) was a successful ruler, and he extended the borders of the Cappadocian Kingdom as far as to the Black Sea. The kingdom of Cappadocia lived in peace until the death of Alexander. The previous empire was then divided into many parts, and Cappadocia fell to Eumenes. His claims were made good in 322 BC by the regent Perdiccas, who crucified Ariarathes; but in the dissensions which brought about Eumenes's death, the son of Ariarathes recovered his inheritance and left it to a line of successors, who mostly bore the name of the founder of the dynasty.

16th-century map of Anatolia from Münster's Cosmographia showing "Capadocia"

Under Ariarathes IV, Cappadocia came into relations with Rome, first as a foe espousing the cause of Antiochus the Great, then as an ally against Perseus of Macedon. The kings henceforward threw in their lot with the Republic as against the Seleucids, to whom they had been from time to time tributary. Ariarathes V marched with the Roman proconsul Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus against Aristonicus, a claimant to the throne of Pergamon, and their forces were annihilated (130 BC). The imbroglio which followed his death ultimately led to interference by the rising power of Pontus and the intrigues and wars which ended in the failure of the dynasty.

Roman and Byzantine province

Artikel utama: Cappadocia (Roman province)

The Cappadocians, supported by Rome against Mithridates VI of Pontus, elected a native lord, Ariobarzanes, to succeed (93 BC); but in the same year Armenian troops under Tigranes the Great entered Cappadocia, dethroned king Ariobarzanes and crowned Gordios as the new client-king of Cappadocia, thus creating a buffer zone against the encroaching Romans. It was not until Rome had deposed the Pontic and Armenian kings that the rule of Ariobarzanes was established (63 BC). In the civil wars Cappadocia was first for Pompey, then for Caesar, then for Antony, and finally, Octavian. The Ariobarzanes dynasty came to an end, a Cappadocian nobleman Archelaus was given the throne, by favour first of Antony and then of Octavian, and maintained tributary independence until AD 17, when the emperor Tiberius, who he had angered, summoned him to Rome and reduced Cappadocia to a Roman province.

A house in Cappadocia

Cappadocia contains several underground cities (see Kaymaklı Underground City), largely used by early Christians as hiding places before Christianity became an accepted religion. The underground cities have vast defence networks of traps throughout their many levels. These traps are very creative, including such devices as large round stones to block doors and holes in the ceiling through which the defenders may drop spears. These defense systems were mainly used against the Romans. The tunnel system also was made to have thin corridors for the Roman fighting strategy was to move in groups which was not possible to do in the thin corridors making it easy to pick them off. The Cappadocian Fathers of the 4th century were integral to much of early Christian philosophy. It also produced, among other people, another Patriarch of Constantinople, John of Cappadocia, who held office 517—520. For most of the Byzantine era it remained relatively undisturbed by the conflicts in the area with the Sassanid Empire, but was a vital frontier zone later against the Muslim conquests. From the 7th century, Cappadocia was divided between the Anatolic and Armeniac themes. In the 9th–11th centuries, the region comprised the themes of Charsianon and Cappadocia.

Cappadocian Greeks in traditional clothing.

Göreme in winter.

Cappadocia shared an always-changing relationship with neighbouring Armenia, by that time a region of the Empire. The Arab historian Abu Al Faraj asserts the following about Armenian settlers in Sivas, during the 10th century: "Sivas, in Cappadocia, was dominated by the Armenians and their numbers became so many that they became vital members of the imperial armies. These Armenians were used as watch-posts in strong fortresses, taken from the Arabs. They distinguished themselves as experienced infantry soldiers in the imperial army and were constantly fighting with outstanding courage and success by the side of the Romans in other words Byzantine". As a result of the Byzantine military campaigns and the Seljuk invasion of Armenia, the Armenians spread into Cappadocia and eastward from Cilicia into the mountainous areas of northern Syria and Mesopotamia, and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia was eventually formed. This immigration was increased further after the decline of the local imperial power and the establishment of the Crusader States following the Fourth Crusade. To the crusaders, Cappadocia was "terra Hermeniorum," the land of the Armenians, due to the large number of Armenians settled there.

Turkish Cappadocia

Following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, various Turkish clans under the leadership of the Seljuks began settling in Anatolia. With the rise of Turkish power in Anatolia, Cappadocia slowly became a tributary to the Turkish states that were established to the east and to the west; some of the population converted to Islam but the main Greek-Byzantine population moved to the Ionian coast. By the end of the early 12th century, Anatolian Seljuks had established their sole dominance over the region. With the decline and the fall of the Konya-based Seljuks in the second half of the 13th century, they were gradually replaced by the Karaman-based Beylik of Karaman, who themselves were gradually succeeded by the Ottoman Empire over the course of the 15th century. Cappadocia remained part of the Ottoman Empire for the centuries to come, and remains now part of the modern state of Turkey. A fundamental change occurred in between when a new urban center, Nevşehir, was founded in the early 18th century by a grand vizier who was a native of the locality (Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha), to serve as regional capital, a role the city continues to assume to this day.

In the meantime many former Cappadocians had shifted to a Turkish dialect (written in Greek alphabet, Karamanlıca), and where the Greek language was maintained (Sille, villages near Kayseri, Pharasa town and other nearby villages), it became heavily influenced by the surrounding Turkish. This dialect of Greek is known as Cappadocian Greek. Following the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the language is now only spoken by a handful of the former population's descendants in modern Greece.

Modern tourism

Goreme

Urgup

The area is a popular tourist destination, as it has many areas with unique geological, historic, and cultural features.

The region is located southwest of the major city Kayseri, which has airline and railway service to Ankara and Istanbul.

The most important towns and destinations in Cappadocia are Urgup, Goreme, Ihlara Valley, Selime, Guzelyurt, Uchisar, Avanos and Zelve. Among the underground cities worth seeing are Derinkuyu, Kaymakli, Gaziemir and Ozkanak. The best historic mansions and cave houses for tourist stays are in Urgup, Goreme, Guzelyurt and Uchisar.

Hot-air ballooning is very popular in Cappadocia and is available in Goreme. Trekking is enjoyed in Ihlara Valley, Monastery Valley (Guzelyurt), Urgup and Goreme.

Sedimentary rocks formed in lakes and streams and ignimbrite deposits that erupted from ancient volcanoes approximately 9 to 3 million years ago, during the late Miocene to Pliocene epochs, underlie the Cappadocia region. The rocks of Cappadocia near Göreme eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars and minaret-like forms. People of the villages at the heart of the Cappadocia Region carved out houses, churches and monasteries from the soft rocks of volcanic deposits. Göreme became a monastic centre in 300—1200 AD.

The first period of settlement in Göreme goes back to the Roman period. The Yusuf Koç, Ortahane, Durmus Kadir and Bezirhane churches in Göreme, and houses and churches carved into rocks in the Uzundere, Bağıldere and Zemi Valleys all illustrate history and can be seen today. The Göreme Open Air Museum is the most visited site of the monastic communities in Cappadocia (see Churches of Göreme, Turkey) and is one of the most famous sites in central Turkey. The complex contains more than 30 carved-from-rock churches and chapels, some having superb frescoes inside, dating from the 9th century to the 11th century.

Mesothelioma

In 1975 a study of three small villages in central Cappadocia—Tuzköy, Karain and Sarıhıdır—found that peritoneal mesothelioma was causing 50% of all deaths. Initially, this was attributed to erionite, a zeolite mineral with similar properties to asbestos, but detailed epidemiological investigation demonstrated that the substance causes the disease mostly in families with a genetic predisposition to mineral fiber carcinogenesis. The studies are being extended to other parts of the region.

Media

A video showing the terrain of Göreme and Cappadocia

The area now sees a lot of movie activity due to its topography. Turkish model and actress Azra Akin recently was in a commercial for a chewing gum called First Ice. The commercial shows some of the area's features. The 1983 Italian/French/Turkish film Yor, the Hunter from the Future was also filmed in Cappadocia. In the tabletop role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, Cappadocian is an extinct clan of vampires based around Mount Erciyes. In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Cappadocia is an underground city in Turkey which is dominated by Templars. The region was used for the 1989 science fiction film Slipstream to depict a cult of wind worshippers. In 2010 and early 2011, the film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance also filmed in the Cappadocia region. The star of the film, Nicolas Cage, said he liked the area.

Panoramic view of Babayan under snow

Gallery

• 
  Early Christian cave art with graffiti
• 
  The town of Ortahisar
• 
  Places of touristic relevance
• 
  Rocks

Medea is a film by Pier Paolo Pasolini based on the plot of Euripides' Medea. Filmed in Göreme Open Air Museum's early Christian churches, it stars opera singer Maria Callas in her only film role; however, she does not sing in the movie.

İbrahimpaşa village, the bridge

See also

• Cappadocian Greeks
• Amaseia
• Cappadocian Fathers
• Cappadocia under the Achaemenids
• List Of Colossal Sculpture In Situ
• List of traditional Greek place names
• Mokissos
• Tourism in Turkey
• Ürgüp
• Kandovan, Iran

External links

• A recent photo tour of Cappadocia
• Photos about Cappadocia and Weather and Transport information

References

•  Artikel ini menyertakan teks dari suatu terbitan yang sekarang berada pada ranah publik: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "perlu nama artikel ". Encyclopædia Britannica (edisi ke-11). Cambridge University Press.