abbychumz
Senior Lister
Uchisar
Another town in Cappadocia, Uçhisar is situated at the highest point in the region just 7km from Nevşehir. The rock castle of Uçhisar can be seen for miles away. The cave dwellings inside this rock used to be the most populated area of Uçhisar. However, as the danger caused by erosion became greater, people moved away. The last residents left in the 1950s. The top of the castle provides a magnificint panorama of the surrounding area.
Ortahisar
Ortahisar means “middle castle” and as its name implies, it is central among the Cappadocian towns of Goreme in central Turkey. Its most pronounced structure is the castle of Ortahisar situated at a 86 meter (282 ft) high cave. The castle has been used strategically and for accommodation. The caste has partly crumbled away revealing some of its interior. Today it has been restored and the peak is accessible by a staircase.
Kandovan
Located in Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province, it is a mysterious 13th century village. Many of the homes there have been made in caves located in cone-shaped naturally formed compressed volcanic ash formations that make the landscape look like a gigantic termite colony. Most of the cave houses are two to four storeys in height. In a typical four storey house, the ground floor is used as an animal shelter, the next two floors are used as living areas, and the top floor is used for storage.
Vardzia
Situated in southern Georgia, Vardzia is a 12th century cave monastery and city carved out of a cliff overlooking a river gorge. It is one of the most spectacular sights in the country. They consisted of over 600 apartments in a 13 story complex.
Bandiagara Escarpment
The Bandiagara Escarpment is a sandstone cliff in the Dogon country of Mali that rises almost 500 meters (1,640 ft) from the lower sandy flats below. These cliffs are dotted with ancient cave homes of the Tellem people.
Mesa Verde
Mesa Verde, located in southwestern Colorado near the community of Cortez, is home to the famous cliff dwellings of the ancient Anasazi people. It may be the most significant archeological preserve of Native American culture in the United States. In the 12th century, the Anasazi start building houses in shallow caves and under rock overhangs along the canyon walls. Some of these houses were as large as 150 rooms. The most famous of these are called Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House.
Sassi di Matera
The Sassi di Matera “stones of Matera” are cave dwellings situated in the old town of Matera in southern Italy. The Sassi originate from a prehistoric settlement, and are among the first human settlements in Italy. Many of the houses, which are dug into the tufa rock, are really only caverns. In the 1950s, the government forcefully relocated most of the population of the Sassi to areas of the developing modern city. However some people continued to live in the Sassi just as their ancestors.
Bamiyan
Bamiyan in central Afghanistan is famous for two gigantic statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff. The statues were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, on the grounds that they were an affront to Islam. The cave dwellings at the foot of the statues, which at one time housed thousand of monks, were used by Taliban for storing weapons. After the Taliban were driven from the region by American troops, civilians made their homes in the caves. Many of the caves have remains of painted frescos.
Matmata
Matmata is a small village in southern Tunisia. Some of the local Berber residents live in traditional underground “troglodyte” dwellings. These cave dwellings are created by digging a large pit in the ground.
Guyaju
Sometimes called the biggest maze of China, Guyaju is an ancient cave house located about 57 miles from Beijing. No precise record of it has ever been found, so no one knows its exact origins. The house was hewn from the craggy cliffs overlooking Zhangshanying Town.