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Fig. 9 A cave dwelling in Zelve valley, one of the last abandoned monastic valleys of Cappadocia, Turkey (photo: A. De Pascale-Centro Studi Sotterranei).
Fig. 10 A cave dwelling with its characteristic patio for an extended family. Matmata, Tunisia (photo: F. Vegas, C. Mileto).
with a kitchen, a living room, one (or more) bedrooms, a livestock pen and storage space. Normally cliff cave dwellings also have a higher average number of rooms per dwelling complex than pit cave dwellings. Frequently, depending on the topography, the typology of these caves allows them to be accessed from a higher-level terrace or they may also have an entrance to the courtyard from an alley. The second solution (B) principally comprises a patio (square, elliptical, trapezoidal or rectangular) which is surrounded by underground dwelling units. This type of construction is usually built on flat or slightly sloped land and the patio is normally excavated to a depth of more than 6-7 m. This courtyard typology has various rooms on each side: sleeping units are usually east – or west – oriented, living rooms are south-oriented, and storage spaces are commonly north oriented. Also there is a well or a cistern in the patio and graded entrances can lead directly to the courtyard by a stairway. Another frequent solution is a combination of below – and aboveground space usage (C), with cliff or pit cave dwellings attached to each other. This construction may be, for example, a house close to
the cliff combined with rooms excavated directly into it. The aboveground building compensates for the deficiencies of the underground space and vice versa. The fourth possibility (D) counts on an ‘excavate-and-cover-building solution’. This is a unit with an earth-covered structure, which is basically located at the grade and then earth-bermed and covered or integrated into a partially or fully excavated site. Either one of these solutions is related to a wide variety of sub-types of constructions, that are the results of socio-economic, topographical, geomorphological, as well as climatological and cultural variations. Environmental forces, like temperature, precipitations and the composition of the soil, usually contribute to the detailed articulation of sub-types different that differ from one example to another. Traditional cave-dwelling solutions are above all related with the first options, called cliff (A) and pit (B) underground units; at the same time contemporary experimentations work more on space combinations, as explained in the two other options, known as hybrid (C) or earth-bermed (D) structures.
Fig. 11 Schemes of common basic types of cave dwellings (A, B, C, D) (drawings: V. Cristini).
A
B
C
D