 The
city of Nevşehir and its neighborhood is very enriched
and famous for tumulus tombs. Because of some of them becoming
too flat, it is very difficult to understand if it is a tumulus
or not. In case of this, some of them are just like a second
magnificent mountain bulk. There are lots of small tumuli tombs
in Ürgüp, Avanos
and Özkonak. In addition to these places,
"Tumulus of Çeç" which is in the west of Avanos is
very famous in these areas. Between 1968-1969 archaeological
excavation was made in two of the small tombs on the way to
Kayseri-Aksalur. According to the president of this excavation
Mr. Gürkün Toklu, they belonged to Galata's people. A tumulus
which is excavated by Mehmet Eskioğlu and the tumulus of Beştepe,
by Hamdi Kodan is dated to the Hellenistic period in Kayseri.
As its seen, all these tumuli are built in different times and
some of them are built from soil and the others from stones.
And all these show different cultures.
In addition to all
these things, we can see the tumulus of Çeç as the biggest tomb of Nevşehir but there
is also some uncertainty surrounding the tombs. Because nobody knows when or who built
this tomb. The diameter is 300 - 350 and it's height is 30 m, and because it's that
magnificent, it's very important to history.
 It is too difficult to understand some
historical mysteries in this area. Because there is only one tomb as measures and stone
blocks. According to the people who live around this place: "years ago there was a
king... " and as understanding it was built for a king. Even this tomb is a subject
to some stories and legends. It may be the tomb of King Andros. . . looking at its
dimension it's understood so easy. But all the scientific evidences are different from
each other. It is said, these tombs were a place for religious meetings or a
meteorological station to search the sky's movements, as well as being a kings tomb. When
you look at this tumulus of Çeç, it is understood that it was built for an important man
or thing and also that the death anniversary was very important in those times.
In our opinion, to understand of mystery of Çeç it is necessary to search culture's
material which was about at that time. We're sure that the history of Çeç and Avanos is
written in those cultural material. And also it can be easily understood that these tombs
are not belong to Phrygians or Lydians. Because, Phrygians were used soil just like these
tombs and the tomb of Alyattes in Sardis, is also very different from Çeç. Perhaps Çeç
was built for the prayer of Zeus but we can also think that this tomb can be for a
Cappadocia's king. If it is so, we can say that this Çeç tomb is for Ariobarzane II who
lived in Cappadocia in the years of BC 63-52.
- See also:
 Potos
of Çeç Tumulus
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