Cappadocia: the current issues in planning a World Heritage Site
Date
2016
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Publisher
AESOP
Abstract
The cultural heritage landscapes are facing many threats. These threats can be focused on the human effects simultaneously on the nature. In special cases the threats due to the nature’s and human’s effects, can be together and simultaneous. The effects of threats is widening; the problems of protection are becoming increasingly complex. Cappadocia is a significant example for this situation.
Cappadocia in terms of natural and cultural values, with transcultural continuity of daily life, say semi-troglodyte, in cave houses, is a unique masterpiece of nature. The permanent contributions of humanity throughout history have transformed Cappadocia, from a natural area of the simple rural life troglodyte, to a World Heritage Site of UNESCO. The fairy chimneys with their structure easy to dig and shape, are good protectors for cultural continuity created in the natural landscape.
The most essential natural threat that Cappadocia is facing today is the erosion. The life of hoodoos that begins with the birth followed by improving ends with a slow process of disappearance, the cycle of nature. The idea to keep or maintain their shape is synonymous to stop the time.
Moreover, cultural works created in these hoodoos are the most important values and prestigious in the world and certainly their protection is a humanitarian obligation. The tourism potential of World Heritage sites is very important for local people. But the extreme increase in tourism sector oriented cultural values has become a destructive threat. Development plans and regional planning were shaped by decisions and policies that contribute to this development. The trend is to offer cave houses to tourism demands, transforming them to "boutique hotels". Small traditional institutions lose their vernacular habitat, gradually transforming to holiday villages.
Description
Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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