Word: tufa
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...boulders get up there? That's the key to this mysterious valley. Geologists explain that the place is made of tufa, a soft rock deposited by the nearby volcano Ercyas Dagi. Harder rocks were interspersed with the soft tufa, protecting what lay beneath them from the rainwater that eroded the rest of the valley. As the land level declined, these peculiar shapes of tufa with boulders on top of them were left behind. In most cases the tufa columns wore away so much that their rock capitals eventually fell off; these columns have since sharpened to a fine point...
...these rock dwellings are above ground. On the perimeter of the valley, at Denikulu and Kaymakli, the Byzantines tunnelled down into the soft tufa and constructed underground cities eight levels deep and a mile wide, fit to house 10,000 people, their animals and their stores. The inhabitants cooked and ate communally. Special chimney systems were designed to conceal the smoke; ventilation shafts provided air. The various rooms are all connected by a labyrinthine network of stairs and corridors. These troglodytes wheeled mammoth stones across the entrance and holed themselves up for six months at a time...