***Editie online: Anul nr. III

februarie 7, 2025

TURKEY- JOURNALIST, Tülay Çetinkaya Saraçoğlu: Mysterious mummies in Aksaray and the first brain surgery in history

The oldest known brain surgery in history found in Aşıklı Mound, mysterious mummies in the museum…  Underground cities, fairy chimneys and the beauties offered by nature, Ihlara Valley, Belisırma and many more…

Sources indicated: https://haber.dk/aksaraydaki-gizemli-mumyalar-ve-tarihteki-ilk-beyi-ameliyati/34977

Dear readers, in this article I would like to introduce you to Aksaray, the hometown of my late husband M. Serdar Saraçoğlu, the gateway to Cappadocia.

During my last visit to Aksaray, we talked with the mayor Dr. Evren Dinçer about our mutual friends and acquaintances. We talked about the historical texture of Aksaray, and after this trip, I decided to write about the love I feel for Aksaray because of my wife, so that I could share with you the special beauties of the city as much as I learned.

Aksaray, which is considered the gateway to Cappadocia with its hundreds of large and small fairy chimneys near the town of Selime, is one of the special cities in Anatolia at the foothills of Mount Hasan.

I say special because the city, which hosts the same lands as Aşıklı Mound , located 25 km southeast of Aksaray city center, is one of the oldest settlements in Anatolia dating back to the Neolithic period, exactly 10,500 years ago, like Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe, which I introduced to you before, around Hasan Mountain . It has a deep-rooted history and culture.

Here you can see many interesting things such as stone mortars, pestles, blades made of obsidian, known as volcanic glass, which is formed as a result of volcanic activities on Hasan Mountain, knives, mirrors, pendants made of stone and bone, and in my opinion, one of the most important is the skull of a young woman, which shows that the world’s oldest skull surgery was performed.

Photo: Tülay Çetinkaya Saraçoplu/Haber.dk

There is a small, regular hole in the skull of a 25-year-old woman. This hole is one of the first examples of brain surgery in prehistoric times. It was understood that the woman lived for about a week or ten days after the surgery.

Another very interesting exhibit in the museum is the mummies. These mummies were unearthed from the Çanlı Church near Akhisar Village in the center of Aksaray and from the Ihlara Valley.

Researcher and author Farah Yurtözü also has a different perspective on these mummies. You can watch this thesis on YouTube.

From here, I would like to thank him for his contribution to the promotion of the province by organizing tours to the Aksaray Museum.

Returning to these mummies on display, they reminded me of the interesting testimonies I heard during family balcony chats during the summer days about UFO sightings that took place in Aksaray in the 1980s and were captured by the TRT cameraman in the city and surrounding villages. I am leaving the TRT news link here.

I leave it to you to decide whether these mummies, for which DNA testing has not been done, are “baby” mummies with their large skulls and hands, or whether they belong to other life forms.

Photo: Tülay Çetinkaya Saraçoplu/Haber.dk

Prehistoric Aşıklı Village Reenactment

At Aşıklı Mound, exact replicas of houses unearthed during excavations have been rebuilt and opened to visitors. These reconstructions include half-buried houses dating back to the 9th millennium BC and rectangular mudbrick buildings dating back to the 8th millennium BC. In addition, wild wheat, planted annually in experimental fields and harvested with obsidian tools, can be seen.

Burial Customs

In Aşıklı, the dead were buried in simple earthen pits dug under the floors of houses. They were buried in the fetal position in the womb, with arms and legs bent. Most were wrapped in straw. The average age of death was around 25, but some lived to be 55-65 years old.

It is located in Ihlara Town, Güzelyurt District, Aksaray Province, northeast of Hasan Mountain. It is 40 km from Aksaray and 7 km from Güzelyurt.

Ihlara Valley, where the wind blows and rests from time to time, and the Melendiz River flows through a deep and silent steep valley, giving the name „Peristrama” to the „People of the Water Flowing in a Circulating Way”, the places where the first Christians built churches and monasteries from the carved tuffs formed on the valley slopes, integrate with the waters of the Melendiz River and create a natural wonder. There are a total of 382 steps of stairs that provide the ascent and descent of visitors to the Valley to these natural beauties.

The Melendiz Stream (Potamus, Kapadukus-Cappadocia River) traverses the 14 km long Ihlara Valley, formerly known as „PERISTREMMA”. Starting from the Ihlara Town, the river cuts through the canyon at a depth of 100-120 m in places and heads northwest towards the wide valley where the Selime Town, Yaprakhisar and Belisırma Villages and the Ziga Thermal Spring are located, and from there to the Salt Lake.

The only way to see Ihlara Valley is through nature walks/trekking.

The natural formation and sheltered structure of the Ihlara Valley has made it one of the important centers of the Christian religion. There are many churches in the Ihlara Valley, which has become an important monastery center since the 4th century, that have the characteristics of the painting art of the period they were built. The churches in the valley, whose benefactors are known, are of particular importance to the scientific world. Because the exact dating of the churches in the valley is quite difficult.

The rock-carved churches with single and double naves, with closed Greek cross and free cross plans, are located on the right and left of the steep slopes of the valley, and are integrated with the waters of the Melendiz River flowing in the middle. Due to its natural structure, the valley has been used as a very suitable place of retreat by monks and priests since the 4th century.

The Christian religion began to spread among people who spoke different languages. The low literacy rate and the fact that few people knew Latin made it difficult for the religion to spread. For this reason, in churches, the life of Jesus, the subjects in the Bible, the religious leaders and the events related to them began to be told with pictures in order to spread the religion.

In the frescoed churches in the valley (such as Sümbüllü, Yılanlı, Kokar, Ağaçaltı, Pürenliseki, Eğritaş, Kırkdamaltı, Bahattin Samanlığı) it is possible to see scenes such as the Birth of Jesus, the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, the Visit, the Escape to Egypt, and the Last Supper. There are also important churches in Selime Town and Yaprakhisar Village in the valley. Such as Selime Castle, Derviş Akın Church, Doğan Yuvası Church. Ihlara Valley is the most important natural and historical settlement of Aksaray that attracts local and foreign tourists.

In the middle of Ihlara Valley, on the banks of Melendiz Stream, is a tiny village called Belisırma. The old owners of the village, the Greeks, named it ‘peristirema’, meaning ‘pleasant view’. Although the pleasant course of the view did not change, the name of the village began to be called Belisırma with its Turkish pronunciation over time.

According to another rumor, it got its name from a horseman with a silver thread around his waist who settled in the village. Although thousands of tourists who come to the village every year have made the boarding house business widespread in the village, the village has migrated to big cities a lot and Belisırma has become smaller and smaller, left alone with the sound of Melendiz’s water.

While giving information about Belisırma Village, although it is not known exactly when it was founded, its history dates back to before the Seljuks. We understand from a fresco in Kırkdamaltı Church that the first Christians lived in the caves formed in the valley by the cooling of the lava erupted by Hasan Mountain. In this fresco, which was painted with a sense of gratitude by the first Christians who performed their worship comfortably during the Seljuk period, a Seljuk ambassador is seen.

Although the village settlement, which was previously located on the north side, has gradually spread to flat areas, there are still restored old houses in Belisırma Village. These houses, which are also used as restaurants, offer delicious flavors that linger on the palate, while the village, which is the continuation of Ihlara Valley, fascinates those who see it with its history. 7 of the 14 churches of the valley that are open to visitors are in Belisırma Village. You can easily reach these churches with short walks without using a vehicle. On the west bank of the Melendiz Stream are Direkli, Batkın, Kırkdamaltı and Bahattin Samanlığı churches, and on the east bank are Ala Kilise, Bezirhane and Karagedik churches.

While tourists from all over the world visit Cappadocia, famous for its fairy chimneys, valleys and underground cities, the underground cities attract great attention.

In recent years, the Saratlı Kırkgöz Underground City is among the most visited underground cities by tourists in Cappadocia. As in the Saratlı Kırkgöz Underground City, the formation and functions of the underground cities in the Cappadocia region are similar.

Underground cities were built since prehistoric times and were actively used in the Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman periods. Especially during the Byzantine period, the Greeks living in Anatolia used underground cities due to habit and security reasons.

The people of Cappadocia lived in houses just above the underground city in times of peace and used the workshops and churches, and in times of war or raids they went to the underground cities below through secret passages built in the floors of the houses.

People living in the region made a living by cultivating the fields around the underground city and by raising livestock. Water wells dug at different points of the cities reach the surface. Thanks to the tunnels opened at certain points of the wells and connected to the main sections, water needs could be met without ever reaching the surface.

n underground cities, when the soft tuff layer underneath could not support the hard black layer above, stone arches and walls were built inside the compartments.

Saratlı Kırkgöz Underground City

Saratlı Kırkgöz Underground City, which has been a favorite of foreign tourists coming to the Cappadocia region in recent years, is located 50 kilometers from Nevşehir and 22 kilometers from Aksaray.

Three floors of the Saratlı Kırkgöz Underground City were cleaned and opened to tourism in 2001. The underground city, which has a toilet, bathroom, cellar and a total of 40 rooms, has a ventilation system unlike its counterparts in the Cappadocia Region. It is estimated that the underground city has 7 floors.

Photo: Tülay Çetinkaya Saraçoğlu / Haber.dk

With its internally bolted security doors made of millstones carved in a way that outsiders cannot understand, the Saratlı Kırkgöz Underground City attracts more and more attention from tourists coming to Cappadocia every day.

Saratlı is an important living area from the Roman period. In Saratlı, they lived collectively, sometimes for a week, sometimes for a month, until the danger was gone. In Saratlı, there are safety gates made of millstones carved in a way that is incomprehensible to outsiders, with internal bolts.

Water was provided from wells and cisterns inside the secret city, bread was made collectively inside, and illumination was provided by lamps powered by olive oil or tail fat. Necessary oxygen was also provided by ventilation shafts.

At the entrance of the Saratlı Kırkgöz Underground City, there is a place used as a barn and containing 14 animal feeders. In the second place passing from here, 7 animal feeders were unearthed.

When you go up to the 2nd floor via tunnels, there is a water well that reaches a depth of 10 meters. A ventilation shaft is opened on the water well, and next to the well, there is a tandoor carved into the ground. There are 3 rooms in another room following this room, while the tunnels leading from here to different directions were left unfinished.

When you go from the 2nd floor to the 3rd floor, you go down a sloping tunnel and enter the place where the water well called Kuyulu Dam is located. There is a room to the right of the well and 2 rooms to the left.

The second underground city in Saratlı Town, the St. Mercurius Underground City and Church, has different features.

The Underground City and Church of St. Mercurius was widely used in the 250s AD when Christianity was forbidden, and was used more as a shelter during this period. St. Mercurius was a commander who lived between 225-250 AD. He was born in the Cappadocia region during the Roman Empire, and was exiled to Cappadocia by the king after he declared his Christianity. His head was cut off in this region and his body was sent to Egypt.

The underground city is entered from a Seljuk-era inn, which locals call Develik. The floors are accessed through corridors and rooms. All passages are connected to the church. While the churches in underground cities are generally small, the church here resembles a cathedral. A separate room has been created inside the church for children’s and adults’ graves.

The church was used as a church until the late periods. There are graves on the floor of the church. During the excavations inside the church, 20 graves of children and adults were unearthed, most of which contained skeletons. In one of the graves inside the church, a man and a woman were placed on top of each other in the same sarcophagus. There are also various types of crosses inside the church. This place was used more during the Eastern Roman period.

During the work carried out in the underground city, food jars were unearthed. In one corner of the underground city, there is a tomb known as Develi Dam where people make offerings. In the room next to this place, there are reliefs resembling ducks or swans carved into stone.

Sources indicated: https://haber.dk/aksaraydaki-gizemli-mumyalar-ve-tarihteki-ilk-beyi-ameliyati/34977


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