Heritage of the Mediterranean ”: a collection that aims to rediscover the spirit of places, to bring them back to life through their history, to arouse the imagination of the past. Each book, based on the most recent research findings, is organized around a privileged theme. From the tales of the first travelers to the tours organized today, Cappadocia has never ceased to amaze explorers and visitors alike, seduced by the combination of striking landscapes and monuments. Shaped by erosion, the soft tuff of the region has also been dug by man from a multitude of dwellings, refuges, tunnels, churches and monasteries. Byzantine archaeological evidence, which dates from the early Christian period to the 13th century, but is especially numerous in the 10th and 11th centuries, shed light on the history and society of this central province of Asia Minor, which was part of the Byzantine Empire until its conquest by the Seljuk Turks at the end of the 11th century. These varied remains partly give us back the life of a large rural population in a region which was not only monastic. By retracing the history of Cappadocia, by promoting the reading of monuments and their decorations, Catherine Jolivet-Lévy convinces us that it is indeed there that the memory of Byzantium remains alive. |