Doves are the symbol of peace and devotion to family in Islam, a symbol of the “Holy Spirit” in Christianity. In Cappadocia, dove-cotes, are hollowed out into the upper parts of almost all the valleys and Angels’Chimneys where martens and foxes could hardly climb and feast on the baby pigeons or the eggs. Dove-cotes are small niches or recesses that were carved into 4 or 5 rows for pigeons to land on, on the three walls of a 5-10 square meter room and when needed wooden perches were also put across the room. Another type of dove-cotes, are the ones that were made by closing up the entrances and the windows of ancient churches or monasteries and changing them into safe havens for the doves. Some of the best examples for this type are the Çavuşin Church near the town of Cavuşin (Nicephorus Phocas), the Swords Church (of Mother Mary) in Goreme and some churches in the valley of Karşıbucak. We owe the well preserved frescoes of these churches to dove-cotes, as closed up windows and doors prevented sun light from coming in an fading the art work. Frescos were also protected from people, since farmers go into the dove-cotes only once a year and leave the place intact.
The facades of the dove-cotes were generally embellished in accordance with the tradition of the time and in harmony with “the guarding birds of the fountains.” The dyes used were extracted from trees, flowers, wild grass and soil with ferrous oxide. Red dye came from a kind of soil/mud known as “Yosa” in the region. White paint is made by mixing plaster and white of an egg, or, as in Uchisar, trinplate or zinc plates were used.
A study on over one hundred decorative design shows that Cappadocian artists, preferred naïve but mystical figures such as the wheel of fortune, which can be on almost every single dove-cotes found in the valleys of Goreme, Cavusin and Zelve. The wheel of fortune, symbolizes the world going round, the destiny changing and the circle of fate and love. The widely used as the motif of the “tree of life” with a bird and a pomegranate comes from the Shaman beliefs; pomegranate, symbolizing heaven, abundance and fertility. Inscriptions written in Old Turkish, bare the date the dove cove was built, words of “Maşallah” (“Praise God”) and though very seldom the name and the occupation of the owner. Dove cotes are best seen in in the valleys near Uchisar, Kılıclar, Gulludere Valley of Goreme, in the Uzengi valley of Urgup, in Balkanderesi and Kızılçukur valleys of Ortahisar, and in the valley of Cat near Nevsehir end of the Soganlı Valley in Kayseri.
Doves of Cappadocia,