^#smrgSAHAF Arts of Cappadocia -

Cappadocia, a land of Dantesque strangeness, is yet one of the favoured regions of the world in which a peculiarly harmonious symbiosis of nature and human activity has been achieved. In the tuffs and rocky crags of this area the Hittite, Greek, Roman, Christian, Seljuk and Moslem civilisations have carved their various imprints, all of them different and all completely integrated into the landscape. Everywhere, set in the cliff faces or hewn from cones of rock, are towns and villages, churches and monasteries, houses and hermitages-slashing holes in the rock surfaces but at the same time bringing life to them. Here the mountains have offered shelter to the men who for centuries sought refuge and carved out dwellings in their flanks. In consequence Cappadocia is now widely recognised as an area offering one of our richest and most representative collections of rock architecture and decoration.

The astonishing originality and outstanding artistic wealth of this meeting-place of civilisations, whose history gives such striking examples of the tolerant syncretism of different civilisations, called for a publication which should do justice to its historical importance. The present work will, we hope, meet that need. It is a cooperative effort which has brought together not only a team of eminent scholars in very different disciplines but a large number of other people whose advice and assistance has made it possible to carry through successfully an enterprise of such scale and magnitude. To all those who have contributed to the production of this book the Istituto Internazionale di Arte Liturgica and Nagel Publishers express their most sincere gratitude. (From Foreword)