Cave Monasteries of Byzantine Cappadocia - Paperbackby Lyn Rodley (Author) This is a fully illustrated account, first published in 1985, of the rock cut monasteries, hermitages and other complexes in Cappadocia (central Anatolia, in Turkey). These were cut into soft volcanic rock, mostly during the ninth to eleventh centuries, when the area formed part of the Byzantine Empire. Although called 'cave' monuments, these monasteries were carefully finished to resemble ordinary built architecture. Some of