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Uchisar
is situated at the highest point in the region, on the
Nevsehir-Goreme road, just 7 km from Nevsehir. It is not
known when Uchisar was first inhabited, however, in style,
it resembles Ortahisar and the Selime Kalesi (castle) in
the Ihlara Region.
The top of the citadel provides a magnificent panorama of
the surrounding area. Many rooms hollowed out into the rock
are connected
to each other with stairs, tunnels and passages. At the
entrances of the rooms, there are millstone doors,
just
like the ones in the underground settlements, used to
control access to these places. Due to the erosion in places
of this multi-leveled castle, it is unfortunately not
possible to reach all the rooms.
The fairy chimneys to the west, east and north of Uchisar
were hollowed out and used as graves during the Roman period.
Inside these rock cut tombs, the entrances of which
generally face west, are klines or stone slabs on which the
bodies were laid. Many rock cut churches have been
discovered not only on the skirts of the castle but also
inside it. The reason for this may be the fact that Goreme,
having numoreus churches and monasteries, is very close to
Uchisar. The simple Byzantine graves on top of
the
castle are not very interesting due to the fact that they
have been eroded and ransacked. It is said that in towns
with citadels, e.g. Uchisar, Ortahisar and Ürgüp (Bashisar),
long defense tunnels reached far into the surrounding areas.
However, since the tunnels have collapsed in places, this
theory cannot be confirmed, but is a popular myth as to the
great distances they cover.
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