Keşlik Monastery is located between Ürgüp and Kaymaklı in Cappadocia, Turkey. The monastery was built in volcanic tuff stone and used in Byzantine Era until end of Ottoman Empire in the 1920s years. The monastery consists of a small church, cells and a frater, the dining room for the monks and a garden outside. Due to many robbers and military conflicts in the region, the monks had a safe room and when they were in need, they could close the door by a big and heavy millstone and escape in a tunnel under the monastery and garden.

Traces of first settlement in Cappadocia can be dated back to 6500 BC. In the late Bronze Age named “Hatti”, after 1600 BC was the region part of the Hittite Empire. In the following time Cappadocia was under the reign of different kingdoms, e.g. Lydians, Persians and Alexander the Great until the region became in the year 18 AD part of the Roman Empire.

Many early Christians built several underground cities in the volcanic tuff stone, used as hiding places before Christianity became an accepted religion. Because Cappadocia was located at the famous Silk Road, even in Byzantine Era and after 11th century under the Seljuks and other Turkish Clans, the region was destabilised by many conflicts and invasions. Some inhabitants converted to Islam, but until end of Ottoman Empire in the 1920 years, still many Christian Orthodox Greeks lived in Cappadocia.

© Photo by Jens Helmstedt