Living in Caves

An exploration of the living style and spaces in the caves

A trip to Cappadocia during the exchange semester at ITU Istanbul gave us
the chance to visit the underground cities and have a glimpse of the lives
that people led who lived in the caves approximately a thousand years ago.
It is very interesting to notice that the people who lived here belonged to
Greece and hence had a different culture and totally different activities than
the Turkish land in which it is located.
These caves are located in a small town named Goreme in Cappadocia in the
Nevehir Province of Central Anatolia. It has a population of around 2,000
people. But the caves we are talking are considered to have the population
of 20,000. Most interesting things to be found in these caves is the contrast
in the habits of people living in these caves to the people and culture to be
found around these caves. It is also said that when these caves were invaded
the original people living here viz. probably Greece people fled and it was
then occupied by the Turkish people and the same spaces in the cave which
were meant for other activities were improvised by the Turkish people
according to their own needs. For example, the wineries and the storage for
the wine has the important part in the Greek culture and hence also in the
spaces in the caves but as it is not much of significance to Turkish people it
can be understood that these spaces were put to a different use by them.
The people living here and the activities which they performed can be
understood by the unconscious and conscious traces that these people have
left in the form of the texture of the surfaces and the spaces and the
elements which were found in these spaces. As it can be seen that these
caves were though belonging to an era of not much advancements were still
had the features to protect its inhabitants by providing them smell, audio
and sometimes the visuals of the activities going outside. These caves were
also designed in such a way that only the people living in it could know how
to protect themselves in case of an attack. These ways included secret
hiding places, secret attacking places, secret passages leading to other parts
of the caves and big storage places in case the people were stuck inside the
caves. But also these traces significantly point to that these caves were
mainly used during an attack or during the times where there was danger to
their security.
Also it is very important to understand that the material of the rocks from
which these caves are built is also key factor to help the people build these
caves in the first case. The material of the caves rocks is comparably soft to
other rocks and is considered to be formed during the volcanic eruptions, but
when this material comes in contact with the air it oxidises and hence forms

a more stable strong compound which resulted in people living in these

caves to make more levels inside these rocks with the support of rock cut
slabs when some of these slabs are as thin as 15 cm. Till now digging has
been done to the 8th level but from the vertical shafts you can see that these
cities go more down and who knows what else we will find as we dig deeper.
Other than these the other key elements of the space that are found in these
caves are the niches for the oil lamps, the black soot on the ceiling
explaining the existence of the kitchen at some point of time, the heavy
doors that were used to block the passages, the hooks carved out of rock
itself to hold the animals and near to these hooks niches to feed those
animals as well, every mark on the surface of the rocks explaining how they
were carved out and tools used to carve them out, the vertical shafts, the
tombs and much more. Out of these the vertical shafts also played an
important role in many functions. They helped in understanding the part of
time, they served as the communication ducts in between the cave
themselves and more importantly they served as the transportation canals
for the material and the goods to be sent in the caves. Because of these the
goods didnt need to be sent by the small passages but could be directly sent
to their destination through these shafts.
It is can be well understood that these caves were not only a way of living
life but also a result of the survival instinct of the humans and how humans
can fit all their needs and habits into a totally different context and still lead
life without much restrictions. These caves show us that a how a simple
material can become the basis for the housing for such a large population
just by using simple tools and techniques while using the quality of the
material.
And how the same space can be reformed and adjusted according to the
people using it depending on their culture and habits but by just changing
the interior architecture of that place and not making any major changed in
the construction of the place.
These caves are an outstanding example of what the human race is capable
of and how hard communities have worked to safeguard their culture and
how we have evolved to become what we are today and a great to example
to reflect on us that how far we have come and how many more miles are we
to go.

Ar. Shivam Mahendru

IMIAD
ITU, Faculty of Architecture