Rock-cut Architecture and Underground Cities in Koramaz Valley of Kayseri, Turkey (eBook)

In this book, rock-cut and underground structures of Koramaz Valley on the Anatolian Plateau in Turkey are described in detail. The valley; located in eastern Turkey near the town of Kayseri, has hundreds of rock-cut structures, in addition to several underground cities, and almost none of them have been studied before. Research conducted by a team from 2014 to 2020, resulted in this overview of all the rock-cut and underground structures in and around seven different settlements in the valley and aims for the physical documentation and inventory of all these structures.

The book studies cliff settlements, rock-cut churches, underground cities, and funerary architecture in the valley. These shelters are estimated to have been built between the 7^th and 10^th centuries and even the smallest of these structures offer rich details for architectural, socio-cultural and historical studies. The rock-cut churches date to the Byzantine Empire period and during the research period, over 400 of these structures were explored, surveyed, and mapped in the region and with all these historical and natural values. Recently, the Koramaz Valley was accepted to the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list. This book is of interest to archaeologists and scholars of built heritage.

Ali Yamaç is a Turkish speleologist. He was born in 1957 and caving since 1976. In addition to his natural cave explorations, as a part of his artificial cave projects, he had explored and surveyed numerous underground cities and rock dwelled settlements around different regions of Turkey. He was the leader of the teams working for 'Kayseri Underground Structures Inventory Project' and  'Gaziantep Underground Structures Inventory Project'. He had explored, surveyed and mapped hundreds of artificial underground structures within these and other projects. Among them, there are 52 rock-cut Byzantine churches and 48 underground cities.