FRENCH TRAVELLER PAUL LUCAS AND CAPPADOCIA

Paul Lucas is the first person who introduced Cappadocia to Europe. He sent to Mediterranean countries by Louis XIV in early 1700s. When he got back everyone got shocked because of the things that he said about Cappadocia. He stated that he saw many interesting houses like pyramids and he thought that these interesting carved houses were the ones of the Christian monks. “When I saw the ruins of old buildings on the opposite bank of the Red River, I was incredibly surprised. These were numerous never-before-seen pyramids. They all had a beautiful door inside, a beautiful staircase to go up, and large windows to light up all the rooms. They consisted of many circles carved one above the other into a single mass of rock. Their number was not two or three hundred, but more than two thousand. At first I thought these pyramids might be former monks' residences. These shapes I saw reminded me of monks' headdresses. But then I realized that it has different forms.” Said Paul Lucas when he first saw the area.

PAUL LUCAS’S SKETCHS OF CAPPADOCIA FROM 1700S

When Paul Lucas visited Cappadocia again in 1719, he described these fairy chimneys as a graveyard and the way he describe Cappadocia was pretty impressive for Europeans, and this is the time that peoples has started to visiting Cappadocia.

PAUL LUCAS’S SKETCHS OF CAPPADOCIAFROM 1700S