Swiss President Pascal Couchepin viewed Cappadocia from the sky, and later visited Derinkuyu underground city and the Church of St. Constantine & Helen in Mustafapasa hamlet of Urgup town.

Couchepin is expected to proceed to the central province of Konya later on Sunday.

The Swiss president arrived in Turkey on Friday as the official guest of President Abdullah Gul.

The first Swiss president ever to pay a formal visit to Turkey, Couchepin met President Abdullah Gul, who later hosted a dinner in his honor at the Cankaya Presidential Residence.

Cappadocia, which is unique in the world and is a miraculous nature wonder, is the common name of the field covered by the provinces of Aksaray, Nevsehir, Nigde, Kayseri and Kirsehir in the Central Anatolian Region.

In the upper Myosen period in the Cappadocia region as a result of the volcanic eruptions occurred in Erciyes, Hasandag and Gulludag, in the region was formed a large tableland from the volcanic tufa and together with the erosion of the Kizilirmak river and wind over ten thousands of years there appeared the chimney rocks which are a wonder of the nature. In the old Bronze Age the Cappadocia which was the population zone of the Assyrian civilization later has hosted the Hittite, Phrygian, Persian, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman civilizations. The first Christians escaped from the persecution of the Roman Empire in the 2nd century B.C. came to the Cappadocia over the Antakya and Kayseri and they have settled here.

The first Christians finding the underground cities from Cappadocia have been hidden in these underground cities which gates were made in such way in which they couldn't be easily observed and they have escaped from the persecution of the Roman soldiers.

Hundreds thousands of tourists visit Cappadocia every year.

AA