Writer: Yavuz İşçen
October 2007

Gesi Bağları is located about 18 km east of Kayseri, 6 km from the turn on Kayseri-Sivas road at 12th km. It is also 75 km from Ürgüp.  Gesi District, as being one of the popular excursion spots of Kayseri, is recently attracting great interest with its dovecotes as well as its vineyards and gardens.

Dove keeping to get their manure
It’s known that the wild doves were used to be fed for their manure that’s used for vineyards and garden in Anatolia in the ancient times. In the Ottoman Era, the dove’s manure which was called ‘koga’ was one of the most important export materials for the country. There are many documents proving the demands of the foreign countries for dove manure, and some records displaying dove manure sales to those countries in the Ottoman archives.
In keeping wild doves, some specific types of coops were needed to collect their manure in a more proper way and for ensuring to accumulate them. These kinds of structures can be seen in Cappadocia where they are named as ‘Güvercinlik’ and in Diyarbakir, named as ‘Boranhane’ indicating dovecotes.
The shapes of dovecotes can be different. In Turkey, there are three types of dovecotes which have different architectures. In Cappadocia, dovecotes are carved into rocks, whereas dovecotes of Diyarbakır are in the shape of adobe buildings. The dovecotes in Gesi Bağları have a ‘tower shape’ and they are built up of stones. This type of dovecote is peculiar to Gesi Bağları. There are similar samples of this ‘tower shaped’ dovecote in other countries. However, underground room of this type dovecote is unique and it’s an important difference.

Architecture of dovecotes
A tower shaped dovecote, called as ‘burç’ (tower) in the region, consists of three main divisions. The first one is under the soil floor and called as ‘the dove room’. This part is as large as a room and carved into rock. Inside the cotes, there are hollows, which allow doves to lay their eggs and are called as ‘niş.’ There is a hole which has a diameter of 1 m, on the ceiling of this room. Dove room can’t be seen from outside because it’s under the ground. Manure of the doves is accumulated here.
The second division of the cote is the ‘tower’ which is called as ‘burç’ in the region. The tower is exactly above the dove room and built to surround the hole on the ceiling of the dove room. Shape of the tower which is made of hewn stone can be round or square. Its width is mostly 2-3 m and height is 3-4 m from the floor. This height is 7-8 m from the room floor. The upper side of the tower is open. Horizontal laid stones help doves to perch upon easily. Doves get in via the hole above the tower and get to the room. Doves are really under protection in this underground dove room, which is surrounded by walls just as battlements.
The third division of the dovecote is the tunnel. Men can reach the dove room via an underground tunnel. This tunnel has 5-10 m length and has a width that a man can easily walk through. Tunnel has an outside door or a stone closure which can’t be seen easily.  Owner of a dovecote, uses this door to reach the dove room and collects the manure accumulated on the floor.
Dovecotes built on both sides of Derindere Valley are located on east-west direction, front sides looking to the valley. Thus, dovecotes on one side of the valley see morning sun and the others see late day sun. In this way doves are protected from cold. It’s known that rock type dovecotes of Cappadocia have a history of 200 years. ‘Tower shaped’ Gesi Bağları dove cotes are thought to be older.

Today’s position of dovecotes
Dovecotes are non-functional today because becoming widespread, artificial fertilizers took the place of manure since 1950-60s. Thus, dovecote building and using decreased dramatically, plus agricultural drug use increased so doves were intoxicated and decreased in number. Finally, people left the dovecotes and the doves left the vineyards. Today you can’t see thousands of doves in the sky, as before. Hundreds of dovecotes are still available as stone monuments which are withstanding the time.

Note: This article has been published in Peribacası Cappadocia Culture and Publicity Magazine, October 2007 issue. It is under protection of the copyrights of the magazine. No part of this article may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by electronic, mechanical or other means without prior permission from the owner. www.cappadociaexplorer.com