The Location Of Cappadocia
In his 17-volume book Geographika, written during the reign of Roman Emperor Augustos, Straban, a writer of antiquity, described the borders of the Cappadocian Region as a very large area surrounded by the Taurus Mountains in the south, by Aksaray in the west, Malatya in the east, and all the way up to the Black Sea coast in the north. However present-day Cappadocia is an area covered by the city provinces of Nevşehir,Aksaray,Niğde,Kayseri and Kırşehir. The smaller rocky region of Cappadocia is the area around Uçhisar,Göreme,Avanos,Ürgüp,Derinkuyu,Kaymaklı and Ihlara.
Katpatuka-Cappadocia
The word ‘Cappadocia’ first appears in antiquity in an inscription dated to the 6th century BC and described the reliefs carved onto the rocky surface of Mount Behistun, situated between Kermanshah and Hamadan in Iran. King Darius I of Persia had the names of tribes and lands that he had conquered carved onto the Behistun inscription in ancient Persian, Elamite and Akkadian languages as proof of his victories. Among the lands mentioned in the inscrition was the name of ‘Katpatuka’ which reminded Persians of ”the land where beautiful horses were bred”. According to orthostats found in the Palace of Persepolis of ‘ the Katpatuka were delegates from 23 countries who brought gifts to the Persian King. Babylonians were represented in the orthostats bringing bulls and rams, Syrians bronze bracelets and Cappadocians fine breeds of horses.
According to some scholars, the word ‘Cappadocia’ derives from the Delice Stream,a tributary of the Kızılırmak River known by Greeks in antiquity as ‘Cappadox’. However, it is highly unlikely that this is the true source of the name. According to another view, the name ‘Cappadocia’ is of Anatolian origin and is derived from the name of Khepat, the Hittite Mother Goddess. Still , although there is no strong basis upon which to make the claim of the name ‘ Land of Beautiful Horses ‘, it is indeed very appropriate.
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