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Nevşehir (District Municipality, Turkey)

image by Tomislav Šipek, 14 Sepyember 2021

Flag of Nevşehir
Previous flag
Municipalities
Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University (Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi)
Nevşehir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nevşehir Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası - NTSO)

See also:

Flag of Nevşehir

The new flag is white with the new logo.

https://www.sabah.com.tr/nevsehir/2021/04/13/ahikadan-nevsehir-belediyesinin-iki-ayri-projesine-3-milyon-hibe-destegi

Tomislav Šipek, 14 Sepyember 2021

The new logo, unveiled in July 2020, features fairy chimneys, horses and tulips. The fairy chimneys symbolize Cappadocia as do the horses, the region being known as the Land of Beautiful Horses. The tulips recall Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha (1662-1730), Great Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (1718-1830) during the Tulip period, who offered a religious complex to his birth town.

https://www.birgun.net/haber/nevsehir-belediyesi-nin-logosu-degisti-309041
İHA, 20 July 2020

Ivan Sache, 15 September 2021

Previous flag

image by Jens Pattke, 9 November 2012

The flag of Nevşehir is white with the municipality's emblem. "Belediyesi" means "Municipality".

Tomislav Šipek, 9 November 2012

Municipalities

Çat

image by Tomislav Šipek, 16 September 2021

The flag of Çat in Nevsehir district depicts fair chimneys.

https://www.cthaber.com/haber/1700814/cat-belediye-baskani-durudan-mirac-kandili-mesaji

Tomislav Šipek, 16 September 2021

Göreme

Flag of Göreme, current and former versions - Images by Tomislav Šipek, 29 May 2020

The municipality of Göreme is located 10 km of Nevsehir. The old names for Göreme are Korama, Matiana, Maccan and Avcilar. Göreme was referred to as Korama in the earliest known written document, dating from the 6th century. It is therefore believed that is the oldest name given to the place. In that same document, it is said that St Hieron was born in Korama at the end of the 3rd century, was martyred in Melitene (modern day Malatya) with his 30 friends, and his hand was cut off and sent to his mother in Korama.
It is believed that Göreme and its surroundings were used as a necropolis by the people of Vanessa (Avanos) in the Roman periods. Both the monumental twin pillared Roman tomb hollowed out into a fairy chimney in the center of Göreme and the presence of numerous tombs in the vicinity support this idea. Göreme, an important Christian centre in the early years of the Middle Ages, was a bishopric administered by Mokissos near Aksaray between the 11th and 13th centuries. Despite the vast number of monasteries, churches and chapels in the vicinity of Göreme, there are not many inscriptions bearing dates. For this reason, these religious buildings are mainly dated according to the iconography or architectural features.
[Unofficial website]

The flag of Göreme (photo) is white with the municipality's emblem. "T.C." stands for "Türkiye Cumhuriyeti", "Republic of Turkey"; "Belediyesi" means "Municipality".
The emblem, adopted in December 2019, is based on the previous one, which was made simpler and clearer.

The silhouettes filled in black were replaced by white drawings outlined in white, making the charges easier to identify.
The emblematic elements of the previous emblem - mountains, fairy tales, air balloons, horses, year of foundation and motto ("Capital of Cappadocia") - were kept.
The horses standing atop the mountain was replaced by a Turkish flag; two horses were added in the foreground, standing on a golden crescent pointing upwards. A golden star was added above the mountains. A sketchy representation of the Roman fortress was added.
[FİB Haber, 2 December 2019]

The former flag of Göreme was white with the municipality's emblem.
The emblem of the municipality features the Göreme chimney fairs, among the most famous in Cappadocia, and an hot air balloon.

The Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia were inscribed in 1985 on the UNESCO's World Heritage List, with the following presentation:

Located on the central Anatolia plateau within a volcanic landscape sculpted by erosion to form a succession of mountain ridges, valleys and pinnacles known as "fairy chimneys"; or hoodoos, Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia cover the region between the cities of Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Avanos, the sites of Karain, Karlık, Yeşilöz, Soğanlı and the subterranean cities of Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu. The area is bounded on the south and east by ranges of extinct volcanoes with Erciyes Dağ (3916 m) at one end and Hasan Dağ (3253 m) at the other. The density of its rock-hewn cells, churches, troglodyte villages and subterranean cities within the rock formations make it one of the world's most striking and largest cave-dwelling complexes. Though interesting from a geological and ethnological point of view, the incomparable beauty of the decor of the Christian sanctuaries makes Cappadocia one of the leading examples of the post-iconoclastic Byzantine art period.
It is believed that the first signs of monastic activity in Cappadocia date back to the 4th century at which time small anchorite communities, acting on the teachings of Basileios the Great, Bishop of Kayseri, began inhabiting cells hewn in the rock. In later periods, in order to resist Arab invasions, they began banding together into troglodyte villages or subterranean towns such as Kaymakli or Derinkuyu which served as places of refuge.
Cappadocian monasticism was already well established in the iconoclastic period (725-842) as illustrated by the decoration of many sanctuaries which kept a strict minimum of symbols (most often sculpted or tempera painted crosses). However, after 842 many rupestral churches were dug in Cappadocia and richly decorated with brightly coloured figurative painting. Those in the Göreme Valley include Tokalı Kilise and El Nazar Kilise (10th century), St. Barbara Kilise and Saklı Kilise (11th century) and Elmalı Kilise and Karanlık Kilise (end of the 12th – beginning of the 13th century).

Cappadocia is known around the world as one of the best places to fly with hot air balloons. The spectacular surrealistic landscapes combined with excellent flying conditions allow the balloons to gently drift over and between fairy chimneys, pigeon houses hewn into the unique rock formations, orchards and vineyards through impressive valleys, each with distinctive rock formations, colors and features and then float up over rippled ravines for breathtaking views over the region.
[Unofficial website]

Tomislav Šipek & Ivan Sache, 29 May 2020

Kaymaklı

Flag of Kaymaklı - Image by Tomislav Šipek, 15 September 2021

The flag of Kaymaklı in Nevsehir district can be seen at https://www.fibhaber.com/yerel/kaymakli-belediyesi-ve-belediye-is-sozlesme-imzaladi-h98396.html. It depicts the caverns of this underground city.
Tomislav Šipek, 15 September 2021

The municipality of Kaymaklı (4,401 inhabitants in 2020) is located 20 km south of Nevşehir.

The municipal logo represents the galleries of the Kaymaklı underground city and a typical millstone door.

Kaymaklı underground city, built under the hill known as Kaymaklı Citadel, was opened to visitors in 1964. The people of Kaymaklı village have constructed their houses around nearly one hundred tunnels of the underground city. The inhabitants of the region still use the most convenient places in the tunnels as cellars, storage areas and stables, which they access through their courtyards. The Kaymaklı underground city has low, narrow and sloping passages. While the underground city consists of eight floors below ground, only four of them are open to the public today, in which the spaces are organized around ventilation shafts.

The first floor of the underground city is the stable. The small size of this area suggests that there could be other stables in sections that have not yet been opened. The passage to the left of the stable contains a millstone door and leads into the church. To the right of the corridor are rooms hollowed out as living areas.
The church on the second floor has a single nave and two apses. In front of the apses is an altar, and on the sides are seating platforms. There are also some living areas on this floor.
The most important areas of the underground city are on the third floor. Besides numerous storage places, wineries and kitchen, the block of andesite with relief-texture found on this floor is very interesting. Recent research has proved that this stone was used as a melting pot for copper. The stone was not brought here from outside but was part of the andesite layer unearthened while hollowing. To be able to use it as a melting pot, 57 holes were carved on the surface of the stone. The copper ore, about 10 cm in length, would be put into one of those holes and would be hammered using a hard piece of rock. This technique has been known since the prehistoric periods. The copper brought to the Kaymaklı underground city was probably dug from a quarry between Aksaray and Nevşehir.
The fact that there are a lot of storage rooms and places to put earthenware jars in the wineries on the fourth floor indicates that the people living in this underground city were economically stable. The ventilation shaft can also be seen from the fourth floor. It is a vertical well and passes all floors down like on the elevator in an apartment. The depth of the ventilation shaft is about 80 meters in total.

Even though the whole city has not been completely opened, and since only four floors have been uncovered, it is certain that Kaymaklı is one of the largest underground settlements in the region. It is accepted as the widest underground city of Cappadocia, among the explored ones. The number of the storage rooms in such a small area supports the idea that a great number of people resided here. Archeologists think that this could have been up to 3500 people.

https://www.goreme.com/kaymakli-underground-city.php
Turkish Heritage Travel

Ivan Sache, 18 September 2021

Sulusaray

Flag of Sulusaray - Image by Tomislav Šipek, 29 September 2015

The flag of Sulusaray (photo) is white with the municipality's emblem. "Belediyesi" means "Municipality".

Tomislav Šipek, 29 September 2015

Uçhisar

Flag of Uçhisar - Image by Tomislav Šipek, 19 June 2015

The municipality of Uçhisar (3,820 inhabitants in 2009) is located 10 km of Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Avanos.

The flag of Uçhisar is white with the municipality's emblem. "Belediye Başkanlığı" means "Municipality Presidency".
The emblem of the municipality features the Kale (lit., castle) rock.

Uçhisar is famous for the huge rock formation once used as a fortification. This extraordinary rock is the highest peak in the region (1,300 m) and offers a magnificent panoramic view of the whole of Cappadocia with Mt. Erciyes in the distance. The citadel, carved out and tunneled by the cave-dwellers of the past, and concealed from view and used for defense purposes, has now been destroyed by erosion, revealing the inner honeycombed architecture. A secret tunnel from the castle to the riverbed 100 m below, hewn out in order to provide the water supply in the event of siege, has been recently discovered.
[Balloon Turca]

Tomislav Šipek & Ivan Sache, 25 March 2016

Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University

Flag of Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, current and former versions - Images by Ivan Sache, 11 February 2018

Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University was established in 2007 as Nevşehir University. The university was renamed for the mystic saint Haji Bektash Veli (1209-1271). Known as the Sultan of Hearts and Derwish of the Derwishes, he is the source of two main branches of Sufism, Alevism and Bektashism.
The university is composed of 7 Faculties, 3 Schools, 7 Vocational Schools and 3 Institutes.

The flag of the university (photo, photo, photo, photo, photo, photo, photo) is white with the university's emblem. The flag of the Nevşehir University (photo, photo, photo) was white with the university's original emblem.
The two emblems differ by the background color but feature the same graphical element, a stylized representation of a chimney fair, also represented on the municipal emblem. The right part of the emblem appears to form a stylized representation of the Turkish crescent and star, probably not a mere coincidence.

Ivan Sache, 11 February 2018

Nevşehir Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Flag of NTSO - Image by Ivan Sache, 3 August 2019

The flag of NTSO (photo, photo, photo) is white with the organization's emblem.

Ivan Sache, 3 August 2019