THis is explained in the next picture.  These underground cities go down as far as 8 stories tho I only went down two stories.

These were hiding places for religious groups which were hiding from other religious groups.... I can't remember who was attacking whom at this time. But, they took their animals down with them and it was very interesting what they had carved out. The ground here is relatively soft too as its made from that volcanic ash like those tuffas where they made the caves.

This is a typical café carved into a tuffa.

We left Cappadocia and went to Ephesus ( you know...the Ephesians from the bible) where there are these fabulous Roman ruins.  They have found the paved roads so you can see how the town was laid out.  This was the second largest seaport in the eastern Roman Empire but now its actually inland as the river has silted in....but you can see where it was.

The Austrian government has built a huge roof over some of the ruins so their teams can restore the homes.  You can see some of the beautiful mosaics and wall paintings they have restored.  I don't know what the final plans are for this project.