Historical Reference

The Greeks of Cappodocia

From Impressions of Turkey during twelve years' wanderings, by Sir William Mitchell Ramsay

The Cappadocian Greeks are an interesting people, who have been described by the older German traveller Mordtmann (father of the present active and able physician-archaeologist of Constantinople) and by the Greek Karolides, in papers that are unfortunately buried in periodicals inaccessible to most people. Cappadocia passed with hardly a struggle into the hands of the Seljuk Turks immediately after 1070, and hence it suffered little from war. The Greeks of the cities, such as Kayseri, Nigde, or Bor, forgot their Greek, until the revivification of the western spirit in the last generation produced a revival of the language. But the Greeks of the villages have retained their native language to the present day ; and it is an interesting tongue, very difficult to understand for one who, like me, had been trained in the Greek of the Aegean lands. Monsieur Karolides has published a work on this Greek dialect.

 The people seemed to share in the rather suspicious temperament of the Armenian villagers, so far as my scanty experience goes. It was not so easy to get into pleasant relations with them as with the western Greeks, which was doubtless due partly to the fact that I could not catch what they said, for whereas they understood my Greek with perfect ease, their pronunciation concealed from me what they said in reply. But temperament, separation from the rest of the Greek world, and burial among the surrounding mass of Turks, had much to do with their want of cordiality to strangers, and their obvious dread of any person new to them.

The Greek Cappadocian villages are usually large and well-built, and have an appearance of comfort and wealth that contrasts remarkably with the poverty and wretchedness of the Mohammedan villages. Almost all the energy and progress visible in these regions lie among the Christians. Many of the villages make much use of rock-cutting in their domestic arrangements. At Hassa-Keui (the old bishopric of Sasima to which Basil consecrated the reluctant Gregory), Melegob (Malakopaia), etc., every house has an underground story

cut out of the soft rock that underlies the soil of the level fertile plain. Narrow passages connect the underground chambers belonging to each house, and longer but equally narrow passages run from house to house. A big solid disc of stone stands in a niche, outside each underground house, ready to be drawn forward in front of the door at any alarm.

Other villages use the rocks of the hillsides, of which Gelvere (the old Karbala, the estate inherited by Gregory of Nazianzos) may serve as one out of many specimens. It is situated in a narrow rocky glen, which is from end to end a mass of rock-cut chambers, cells, churches and houses. The prospect down the glen from the upper end is marvelously quaint and fantastic : the soft rocks have been worn into odd shapes by the weather: the rock cuttings add to the curious appearance: the modern houses, well built of cut blocks of the same stone, can hardly be distinguished from the actual hillside.

The people of these districts of Cappadocia are described as Troglodytes by Byzantine historians: and the custom of dwelling in the rocks or below the ground undoubtedly goes back to time immemorial; but we could not find any cuttings that were demonstrably pre-Christian.

At one village the water was got from wells, which we ascertained to be about 300 feet deep. A cumbrous, rude, quaint contrivance was used, whereby the united strength of four women drew up a tiny bucket. I timed them, and found that about forty-five seconds were required for the ascent of a bucket.

Impressions of Turkey during twelve years' wanderings, by  Sir William Mitchell Ramsay,  G.P. Putnam's sons, 1897

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