|
Page 2 of 7
Aksaray is located on the Melendiz Cayi (Melendiz River) along the old trade route that connected Persia to the Aegean Sea. It was once the city of Garsaura that was later renamed Archelais but little of its ancient past survives. During the Seljuk era (1071-1300), Aksaray was transformed into an exemplary Muslim city where a hospital and schools were built. One of the first two Islamic theological schools, the Ibrahim Kadiroglu Medrese was built here in the 12th century. The other was built in Konya, one of Turkey's oldest continuously inhabited cities and the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. These and later schools attracted some of the greatest Islamic scientists, philosophers and theologians of the age including Jelaluddin who escaped the Mongol invasion of Afghanistan. He is better known as Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, a renowned mystical Master and favorite saint of Konya.
The reign of Sultan Alaeddin Keykubat I (1219 - 1236) brought prosperity to the empire when he renovated the long neglected road system and constructed a series of hans (inns) along the way. Generally, they are massive fortress-like structures with impressive entrances framed by intricately carved honeycomb portals. Inside, a large courtyard with a central mescid (small mosque) is surrounded by arched porches where animals were tended. Another portal leads to the living quarters for travelers. Hans were located about a days distance apart by camel and they provided travelers with food, lodging, entertainment and protection. Twenty four miles to the west of Aksaray, the Sultanhan Caravanserai was the last overnight stop before reaching Konya. It was built about 1229 and has been partially restored. The Agzikarahan Caravanserai nine miles to the east of Aksaray retains its original features and is one of the best preserved in the area. This somnolent farming town now serves as a base for exploring the Ihlara Valley or as a rest stop on the way to Cappadocia but during the 13th century, it was an enclave of culture, refinement and scholarship that attracted visitors from all over the known world including the great Spanish scholar and mystic, Ibn El-Arabi.
A few miles past Aksaray, a good road leads to the main Nevsehir-Nigde highway by way of the Ihlara Valley and Guzelyurt. Rick Steves highlighted Guzelyurt in his Turkey travel video for television and now, even 'the pension where Rick Steves stayed' is offered as a place of interest for tourists! Guzelyurt is one of the most tourist friendly communities in Cappadocia with a multi-lingual aide who seems to materialize out of nowhere and whose job it is to assist visitors with practicalities like parking, food and lodging. Villagers and children will stop to chat and give directions to the 'antique city' of the old Greek quarter where the mosque was once an old Byzantine church that honored St. Gregory Nazianzus. He was born and died nearby and is prominent as one of the 4th century Cappadocian Fathers who defended the Nicene Creed against Arianism which denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ.
Formerly known as Karballa then Gelvere, Guzelyurt means 'beautiful land.' It is built on the cliffs surrounding a narrow gorge that is but a small appendage of the more impressive Ihlara Gorge. There are over fifty rock cut churches inside Monastery Valley which lays beyond the old village, past semi-troglodytic houses that line a narrow, winding road. People still live in these old cave dwellings and visitors are apt to see women baking bread in 400 year old communal ovens or children making mud pies on the roofs of their cliff houses carved in the rocks below. Guzelyurt has been declared a conservation area requiring new buildings to be constructed of natural stone so as to maintain its distinct Cappadocian architecture. The boxy, stone buildings with flat roofs and large arched doorways are more similar to houses of Northern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia than to structures in other parts of Turkey. This is hardly surprising because the earliest mention of Cappadocians by Herodotus in the 5th century BC refers to them as 'Syrians.'
|
