They took refuge underground in complexes that were already ancient when Alexander the Great marched through the area.
People continued to expand them over the millenia.
Genetic analysis shows that descendants of the ancient population continue to live in the area.
BeauBo wrote:
**The locals in Cappadocia were carving underground complexes out of the soft local rock long before islam, or Christianity.
They took refuge underground in complexes that were already ancient when Alexander the Great marched through the area.
People continued to expand them over the millenia.**
A testimony to the human need for shelter... Awesome photos!
Cappadocia today holds more than a thousand churches, dating from the earliest days of Christianity to the thirteenth century. For many centuries the religious authority of the capital of Cappadocia, Caesarea (present-day Kayseri), extended over the whole of southeast Anatolia, and it was where Gregory the Illuminator, the evangelizer of Armenia, was raised.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/fairy-chimneys-turkey-180956654/