European View of Central Anatolia. Part II

Perhaps it was not the Venetians, trading for good, perhaps it was the Russians who were the first people with a European context to see the monesteries in Capadocia.

The history of the Russian Orthodox church centers around Kiev in the 1000s--and the Kievans looked to Constantinople, Syria, Athos, and Cappadocia. The mongol invasions of the 1200s, did not change this. The Mongols were, unlike Christian rulers, tolerant of all religions. So perhaps, while the Europeans were organizing crusades ( and incidently sacking Constantinople), religious people were travelling between Kiev and Anatolia.

These religious links go even earlier it turns out. In 400, AD there was a schism between Rome and Constantinople , in "field of eccliastical oikonomia, (Icons?) inherited from the Capadocian fathers. This implies there was a certain amount of contact before this time between the church in Rome and the religious houses in central Anatolia.

My question may be inaccurate. To ask how the first European viewed the Cappadocian landscape is to forget the Europe is a construct, and that contact between people in this region cannot be sliced into easily managed timelines. Capadocia was not "discovered"; it was always there.

So I need to look for first written records in European languages describing this region.

Trade and Religion. Two unique forces that create mobility among our population.