acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

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222 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
difficulties about the work, and with busy traffic proceeding
were throwing a series of arched stone ribs
across the road from the rock to the shops, and
filling in the open intervals with light stone vaulting.
In this way, with small expense, the cavedwellers
were bringing their town abreast of cities
which had covered bazaars.
But the most remarkable part of Urgub stands in
the cliff northward of the present village. There is
ancient Urgub, the real rock village, Urgub of the
Holes, a stronghold whose ramifications no one knows,
whose antiquity no one can estimate. It is safe to
say that human beings have lived and died in the
clitf here ever since, driven by danger and recognising
what could be done, they first went to ground in
these parts. Cave-dwelling has been adopted throughout
Cappadocia more than in other districts because
of its soft, dry, volcanic rock. Greater rainfall perhaps
would have made the rock too damp, but as it
is I never entered a cave-dwelling against which a
serious charge of dampness could be alleged. At old
Urgub the escarpment of rock offered the further
benefit that dwellings could be driven laterally into
the cliff, with openings higher up for light and air,
without diminution of security. Borings in this part
make the whole cliff a warren, with few accesses.
You may find here examples of rock-hewn apartments
for every purpose known to centuries of cave-dwellers.
There are the mere burrows of the earliest dwellings
; more elaborate chambers with store-houses, and
stables, and interior staircases ; monasteries with
refectories—their very seats and tables of stone,
and chapels with wall paintings. Of another sort are
the little isolated cells of anchorites, and the numerous
tombs. Go into any of the small ravines which come
down the cliff, and you are almost sure to find tombs
or cells laid open by the rock decaying.
In one opening leading into the cliff could be seen
traces of the primitive apparatus used for closing such
approaches on the coming of danger. The rolling