Hacıbektaş
The small town of HACIBEKTAŞ was chosen by one of the greatest medieval Sufic philosophers, Hacı Bektaş Veli, as the location of a centre of scientific study. It was renamed in his honour after his death, and his tomb is located within the Hacı Bektaş monastery complex. The main part of the complex, however, dates from the Ottoman period, when it was the headquarters of a large community of Bektaşi dervishes.
Hacıbektaş is also well known for its onyx, by far the cheapest in the region – the relevant shops are located in the street that leads up to the monastery.
Construction of the monastery complex started during the reign of Sultan Orhan in the fourteenth century, and it reopened as a museum in 1964. It comprises three courtyards, the second of which contains the attractive Aslanlı Çeşmesi, the lion fountain, named after a lion statue brought from Egypt in 1853. The sacred karakazan or black kettle (actually a cauldron) can be seen in the kitchen to the right of the courtyard. Important to both the Bektaşi sect and the janissaries, the black kettle originally symbolized communality, with possible reference to the Last Supper of the Christian faith.
To the left of the courtyard, the Meydan Evi, where formal initiation ceremonies and acts of confession took place, bears the earliest inscription in the complex, dated 1367. Its beautifully restored timber roof shows an ancient construction technique that’s still in use in rural houses in central and eastern Anatolia. It’s now an exhibition hall containing objects of significance to the order, including musical instruments and a late portrait of Hacı Bektaş, apparently deep in mystical reverie.
The third courtyard holds a rose garden and a well-kept graveyard, where the tombs bear the distinctive headwear of the Bektaşi order. The tomb of the sage is also located in the third courtyard, entered through the Akkapı, a white-marble entranceway decorated with typical Selçuk motifs including a double-headed eagle. A small room off the corridor leading to the tomb is said to have been the cell of Hacı Bektaş himself.
The life and teachings of Hacı Bektaş Velı
While little is known about the life of Hacı Bektaş Veli, he is believed to have lived from 1208 to 1270. Like other Turkish intellectuals of the time, he was educated in Khorasan, where he became well versed in religion and mysticism. After journeying with his brother, he returned to Anatolia and lived in Kayseri, Kırşehir and Sivas. Eventually he settled in a hamlet of seven houses, Suluca Karahöyük, the present location of the monastery.
Hacı Bektaş’s teachings, on the other hand, are well known. His great work, the Makalat, gives an account of a four-stage path to enlightenment or Marifet – a level of constant contemplation and prayer. The faults that grieved him most were ostentation, hypocrisy and inconsistency: “It is of no avail to be clean outside if there is evil within your soul.” This could be the origin of the unorthodox customs of later followers of the Bektaşi sect, which included drinking wine, smoking hashish, eating during Ramadan and – for women – uncovering the head outside the home. Hacı Bektaş’s widely quoted dictum on women was unequivocal: “A nation which does not educate its women cannot progress.”
The teachings reverberated throughout the Muslim world, and sects including the Bektaşi, the Alevî and the Tahtacı still follow traditions that originated in his doctrines. These now form the main counterbalancing force to Islamic fundamentalism in Turkey.
An annual festival, held in Hacıbektaş August 16–18, celebrates the philosopher’s life.
Mustafapaşa
The small village of MUSTAFAPAŞA, 6km south of Ürgüp, makes for a pleasant excursion or, with your own transport, a good base for explorations. Its charm lies in its concentration of attractive konaks with carved house facades, which date back a century or so to the era when it was known as Sinasos and home to a thriving Greek community.
Mustafapaşa is also central to a cluster of little-visited churches. Its main square holds the Aios Konstantine Eleni Kilisesi (daily: summer 8am–7pm, winter 8am–5pm; TL3), dedicated to Constantine and his mother St Helena, while a monastery complex across the village, reached via streets of houses cut into the tuff cliffs, includes the churches of Aya Nicolas and Aya Stefanos.
The church of Ayios Vasilios, overlooking the Üzengı Dere ravine, holds some well-preserved frescoes, although the faces are damaged, as well as four rock-cut pillars. Below it, pre-Iconoclastic and tenth-century paintings in the partly rock-cut Holy Cross church include an attractive Christ of the Second Coming.
Southern Cappadocia
As most visitors to Cappadocia never get beyond the well-worn Nevşehir–Avanos–Ürgüp triangle, southern Cappadocia is far less charted and trampled. There’s a reason for its obscurity – the two major towns, Aksaray and Niğde, leave a lot to be desired as tourist centres, and much of the scenery is a depressing mixture of scrub or barren steppe. That said, the area does have its fascinations – most notably, the Ihlara valley, between Aksaray and Niğde, where the Melendiz River has carved a spectacular narrow ravine with almost vertical walls. Also easily accessible from Niğde is a small enclave of beautifully painted rock-cut churches belonging to the Eski Gümüşler monastery. South and east of Niğde, the spectacular limestone spires of the Aladağlar Mountains rear from the plateau, affording excellent trekking and climbing.
Ihlara Village
At the valley’s southernmost point, the Ihlara village offers two separate entrance points to the valley. One is in the village itself, and the other at the Ihlara Valley Visitor Centre, a car park and information point around halfway along the main road between Ihlara and Belisırma. This latter entrance provides direct access to the area that holds most of the valley’s churches, via a precipitous but manageable descent of several hundred steps that plummet 150m to the valley floor. Walking from either village to this point offers a tremendous sense of solitude; easy trails run in both directions, each taking about one and a half hours.
The monastic occupation of the Ihlara valley, or Peristrema as it was originally known, seems to have been continuous from early medieval times until the fourteenth century. It would seem from the decoration of the churches, whose development can be traced through pre- and post-Iconoclastic periods, that the valley was little affected by the religious disputes of the period; the paintings show both Eastern and Western influence.
The most interesting of the churches are located near the small wooden bridge at the bottom of the steps from the visitor centre. A plan down here shows all the accessible churches, most of which are easy to find. To the right of the bridge, on the same side as the steps, is the Ağaçaltı Kilise (“Church under the Tree”). Cross-shaped with a central dome, the church originally had three levels, but two have collapsed, as has the entrance hall. The magnificent frescoes inside depict the Magi presenting gifts at the Nativity, Daniel with the lions (opposite the entrance in the west arm) and, in the central dome, the Ascension.
The Pürenli Seki Kilise – 500m beyond, 30m up the cliffside, also on the south bank – can be seen clearly from the river below, although its frescoes, mainly depicting scenes from the life of Christ, are badly damaged. Another 50m towards Ihlara, the Kokar Kilise is relatively easy to reach and showcases the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Flight into Egypt and the Last Supper in the main hall. In the centre of the dome, a picture of a hand represents the Trinity and the sanctification.
Perhaps the valley’s most fascinating church is located across the wooden footbridge, 100m from the entrance. The Yılanlı Kilise (“Church of the Snakes”) contains unusual depictions of sinners suffering in hell. Four women are being bitten by snakes, one of them on the nipples as a punishment for not breast-feeding her young. Another is covered in eight snakes, while the other two are being punished for slander and not heeding advice. At the centre of the scene, a three-headed snake is positioned behind one of the few Cappadocian depictions of Satan; each of its mouths holds a soul destined for hell.
Another church worth exploring is Sümbüllü Kilise (“Church of the Hyacinths”), just 200m from the entrance steps. Its attractive facade is decorated with horseshoe niches, while its badly damaged frescoes show Greek influence.