Avanos : Ceramics capital of Cappadocia

In the past, the Kızılırmak held great strategic importance, marking the western boundary of the Hatti and Hittite kingdoms. Avanos itself has a lengthy history. Once upon a time it was the Roman city of Venessa in the days when the river was famed for its salt rather than its clay and was called the Halys (Salty River). Today there’s not much above ground to remind visitors of that dim and distant past, although deep below the ground are innumerable small underground cities (more like underground villages really). There are few records of the early history of these strange, multilayered Cappadocian features, but it’s believed that at least the top layer of the better-known model at Derinkuyu dates back to Hittite times, so those in Avanos are not likely to be a great deal younger (and indeed there are Hittite references to a settlement thought to be Venessa). None are officially open to the public as attractions, although you can explore some of them informally while visiting the pottery workshops. Alternatively, you can hop on a local bus to nearby Özkonak, where in 1972 the muezzin was busily cultivating his garden when suddenly it opened up and he found himself staring down into an underground city.

According to the historian Strabo, Venessa was the third most important town in the Kingdom of Cappadocia, which existed from 332 B.C. to A.D. 17. Later it boasted an enormous temple to Zeus whose priest was supported from the proceeds of farming the rich volcanic soils beside the river. Like everywhere else in Cappadocia, Venessa had a large Christian population in Roman and Byzantine times. Their memorial is the Dereyamanlı Kilisesi (church), believed to date back to the fifth century, which would make it one of the oldest churches in Cappadocia. A small structure carved into the rock overlooking a forgotten valley of glorious rock formations, it’s simply decorated with red geometric designs, one of them resembling a Star of David, giving rise to the suggestion that it might once have been used as a synagogue. Be that as it may, this is the only such structure in Cappadocia that is currently in use as a church.

If there’s not much to show for the remote past, Avanos is still well endowed with reminders of the 19th and early 20th centuries when it had a large Greek and Armenian population. They left many beautiful old stone houses whose facades are far more elaborately decorated than those of nearby Göreme, with wonderful carvings around their windows and long bands of deep relief separating the ground and first floors - - their design vaguely recalls the diadems worn by the Byzantine emperors.

The best of these old houses can be found in the Old Town, which lies to the north of the town center. Focal point is a newly spruced-up square called Place de Nuits St. Georges in a nod of recognition to the town’s long and close link with France. It’s dominated by the lovely Tevfik Körükcü Konağı, which was built in 1868 and now houses a carpet shop. More fine mansions can be found in the much quieter and less visited western outskirts of town, where amid the ruins of one fine house, a fresco of a mosque and some stencil-like images of flowers stand forlornly exposed to the weather. The finest of all the houses in this part of the town is the glorious mansion facing visitors as they cross the bridge coming from Göreme. Newly restored, it now serves as an outpost of the Kapadokya Meslek Lisesi (Cappadocian High School) in Mustafapaşa.

But the houses are just a side dish to the main meal of the town, which is pottery production. Tour groups tend to be herded into the large ceramics warehouses that cluster around the junction with the road to Göreme, but it’s much more fun to take time and poke about in the back streets, which are dotted with the workshops of individual artists. At İkizler Çömlek Atölyesi, for example, twins Levent and Mehmet Düzgün run their business from inside one of the small underground “cities.” “Our grandfather had his workshop here,” Mehmet says. “Later he moved out, but we decided to come back and use it again.” In the network of rooms whose original purposes can never be known for sure, he shows off the space for storing the clay and the room where the electric kiln can be fired up to more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.

In the courtyard an urn large enough to conceal a man could date back to Roman times when pots were made locally to serve household needs rather than to be sold to visitors. “It was lying in three parts on the banks of the river,” he explains. “A friend saw it when he was out fishing. We rescued it and pieced it back together again.”

Near the Sofa Hotel Hasan Yaman turns out miniature pots by the thousand from the Hitit Çanak Atölyesi. “I fire the kiln to 1,500 degrees and leave them inside for eight hours,” he says as he applies paint to a fresh tray of models. Next door a dummy murder victim lies sprawled on the floor with a knife in his back in an atelier where İsmail Sever turns out an extraordinary array of sculpted heads. “I moved here from Konya,” he says. “It’s easier for artists to work here.”

Probably the best known of all the town-center pottery shops is Chez Galip which operates in what is the officially designated Avanos Çanakçılar Bölgesi (Avanos Pottery Zone) to the east of town. In yet another rabbit warren of rock-cut rooms, you can find all sorts of ceramics, ranging from cheap and cheerful ashtrays to spectacular pieces aimed at collectors. Then deep in the heart of it all, you turn a corner and stumble upon a Bluebeard’s den of an unexpected attraction -- the famous Hair Museum, whose female visitors are asked to donate a lock of hair to adorn the walls or ceiling.