Avanos

History

Old Avanos is riddled with a network of small underground "cities" which may have once been residential but are now mainly used by the many pottery enterprises. Although there is no documented evidence to prove when these structures were carved out of the earth, it is probable that work on some of them began in the Hittite period. As Venessa, ancient Avanos was the third most important town in the Kingdom of Cappadocia (332 BC17 AD) according to the geographer Strabo. Unusually, this is still occasionally used even today. From 1867 until 1922, Avanos was part of Angora vilayet. Most of the visible remains of Avanos' history date from the 19th and early 20th centuries and take the form of many impressive stone houses, mostly built by the now-displaced Greek and Armenian populations. These houses are found in the older part of the city on the northern bank of the river. Avanos expanded rapidly in the early 2000s and there is now a lot of modern housing on the southern side of the river which was extensively landscaped and developed for recreational purposes in the years after 2010.