Writer: Yavuz İşçen
October 2007

Gaziemir is a village of Güzelyurt borough of Aksaray. The name of Gaziemir comes from Emirgazi Tomb. It’s said that once its name was Emirgazi and afterwards this name was changed as Gaziemir. The village is 50 from Aksaray and 12 km from Güzelyurt. Agriculture and livestock are major means of income. Village population is about a thousand and most of the population has Alevi origins (partisan of the Caliph Ali).

Emirgazi Tomb
Emirgazi Tomb, located in the village, is built up of rectangular stones of 8x5 m. There used to be a ceiling cover over the tomb but this structure was collapsed later. In the tomb, there is also a ‘yatır’ (a grave where a holy man is buried) that doesn’t have any gravestone or sarcophagus. There is not another epitaph so it’s not clear who is lying in this grave. The tomb is thought to belong to Emirgazi, from Danişmendoğulları.  

Gaziemir underground city
İbrahim Hakkı Konyalı, talks about an inn called “Gaziemir Hanı” in the first volume of his book History of Aksaray, dated 1974. He notes he couldn’t determine the date and the builder and says that its visible part is used as straw house. Perhaps this is the first written document about Gaziemir underground city.
There is an interesting corridor, about 10 m length, built of stone on the entrance of underground city. This corridor is built with overlap technique that we see another example in Hattuşa, capital city of Hittites. We see this style in none of the underground cities in Cappadocia. At the end of the corridor there is an open area to reach the other parts of the underground city. This structure has kept being unavailable because this area was full of soil.
In the underground city, two churches and a wine cellar, many wine casks indicate that Christians were using here. Many Byzantine coins found during cleaning works indicate that here was used during Byzantine period. Along with these remains there are, food stores, animal shelters, big and small furnaces, Turkish baths, different rooms, and corridors link these places each other. Many of the corridors are wide enough for a camel to pass through. Animal tying places, carved in walls, can be seen in an area where we think it is a barn. Doubtless, we recommend you to see Gaziemir underground city which is very important both for Gaziemir village and our country.
 
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