8.17.2014

Valley of Zelve | Cappadocia

Zelve is actually 3 different valleys, 2 of which are connected by a tunnel.  This was a settlement for many from the 9th to the 13th centuries.  The Muslims and Christians lived here together until the early 1900's when Greece and Turkey began exchanging their populations due to the Turkish War of Independence (the Greek Orthodox in Turkey and the Muslims in Greece.) The Christians then left and the Muslims in the early 1950's because of dangerous conditions due to erosion.  Hard to believe that people were still actually living here in 1950.  What was once an amazing cave town is now an open air museum.

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