The name Cappadocia first appeared in the late sixth century BC on trilingual inscriptions carved by Achaemenid emperors Darius the Great and Xerxes I. These ancient records listed the region as Katpatuka within a catalog of countries under Persian rule.
Thick volcanic deposits from eruptions of Mount Erciyes, Mount Hasan, and Göllüdağ shaped the distinctive landscape over millions of years. Wind and water erosion carved soft ignimbrites into hundreds of spectacular pillars and minaret-like forms near Göreme approximately nine to ten million years ago during late Miocene to Pliocene epochs.
Ariarathes I declared himself king after Alexander the Great attempted rule through military commanders, extending borders to the Black Sea between 332 and 322 BC. Roman interference eventually ended the dynasty when Emperor Tiberius summoned Archelaus to Rome in AD 17 and reduced Cappadocia to a province.
Göreme became a Christian monastic center operating from 300 to 1200 AD where people carved houses churches and monasteries directly from soft volcanic rocks. The Göreme Open Air Museum contains more than thirty carved-from-rock churches and chapels featuring superb frescoes dating from ninth to eleventh centuries.
In 1975 study of three small villages Tuzköy Karain Sarıhıdır found mesothelioma causing fifty percent all deaths initially attributed to erionite mineral similar properties asbestos. Detailed epidemiological investigation demonstrated substance causes disease mostly families genetic predisposition mineral fiber carcinogenesis rather than environmental exposure alone.