TURKEY – CAPPADOCIA

NOVEMBER 16 – 24, 2024

A note about the long bus ride: First of all, they are cheap! Secondly, the seats are more comfortable than an airplane. They are wide and recline with lots of leg room. Thirdly, they serve snacks. They stop often enough to stretch and go to the bathroom.

The land of the Fairy Chimneys! The first morning in Goreme, we went up to the terrace kitchen / common area and saw the sky filled with balloons. (Unfortunately, this was the only day the balloons flew during our stay. The rest of the week had weather not conducive to flight.)

While we were gobsmacked with the balloons, the housekeeper served a delicious plate of cheese, olives and vegetables for breakfast, followed by fried eggs and fresh bread.

We instantly decided to stay an extra two days.

This region of Turkey is well known for its eroded rock formations which were formed millions of years ago by compressed volcanic ash, which created tuff stone. Erosion created the cone shapes and sharp cliffs. It is fairly easy to carve into, and many of them were hollowed out in the Middle Ages to create Christian churches, houses and underground cities.

We could not wait to set out and explore this alien landscape. We walked the few kilometers to the OPEN AIR MUSEUM. It is Cappadocia’s main attraction, with over 1 million visitors every year, even though it only covers 5% of the Goreme Valley. That said, it includes 15 churches and 11 refectories, all built in the 11th century.

Around the 800’s, monks formed small monasteries in the area to pursue the contemplative life. The surreal, desert-like topography created a mystical, spiritual context. And they were easy to construct.

Once the Göreme Valley became populated with monks, lay Christians came as pilgrims to visit the monks and receive prayer. The more pilgrims came, the more sacred the reputation of the region grew. More people wanted to build a memorial chapel or monastery here. That’s why the Göreme Valley has the highest concentration of Christian churches in Cappadocia.

We went into lots of small cave churches, all of which said “No Pictures”; but I took a few sneaky shots anyway.

The paintings in the churches have never seen sunlight, so they are still very brilliant.

Unfortunately, some have been purposely defaced and others have just deteriorated due to time and weather.

The refectories had long skinny “tables” and benches.

One of them had a painting of the Last Supper at one end.

LOVE VALLEY was so-named because of the heart-shaped fairy chimneys that dot the landscape. Or because they look like giant penises.

UCHISAR at town that is dominated by a 60-metre-high ‘castle’ which is actually a rock formation that is visible for miles. We took a bus there.

UCHISAR CASTLE is huge. It once housed 1000 people.

There were several Hobbit-like dwellings at its base.

It was a labyrinth of passageways and rooms. We only had access to a few, but it gave us a good idea of how well built they were. They were proper little apartments, with kitchens, bedrooms, and stables. The temperature stayed quite constant, despite the heat of summer or cold of winter.

Rather than take the 4 km bus ride back, downhill to Goreme, we opted to walk. It was a good choice, as the weather was nice and we saw Love Valley from a higher vantage.

We wondered if people still lived in these cave dwellings. We saw this one with furniture on the balcony. Maybe it was one of the Cave Hotels… We did not stay in one, but heard about them.

We took a bus to DERINKUYU to see the largest excavated UNDERGROUND CITY in Turkey. Other than the ticket booth at ground level, we had NO idea we were walking over an entire city.

The caves were built by the Phrygians as early as 8-7th century BC. It was fully formed when Byzantine Christians used it as protection from the Arab Muslims (780-1180 AD). Then again in the 14th century to hide from the Mongolians. The Cappadocian Greeks and Armenians used them as recently as 1909 to escape persecutions. They were then abandoned until 1963 when a resident found a mysterious room behind a wall in his home while renovating.

The underground city is about 85 m (280 ft) deep and is large enough to have sheltered 20,000 people, together with their livestock and food stores. It also had wine and olive presses. It even had a chapel on the lowest (5th) level.

The city could be closed from the inside with large rolling stone doors. Each floor could be closed off separately.

A 55-metre (180 ft) ventilation shaft was also used as a well. The shaft provided water to both the villagers above and, if the outside world was not accessible, to those in hiding.

The ceilings were very low, and the passageways and stairways were VERY narrow, steep and dark.

It was amazing, but I was expecting to see more of the underground city; something that would show me how it could keep 20,000 people. Sorry….

On the bus ride we noticed that there were lots and lots of cement brick factories.

Every town had cave dwellings along every hill.

I guess people were getting tired of living in caves, because there was LOTS of new construction and apartment buildings in every town we went through.

One day our Airbnb host, Erkan, said he was going to Avanos, to the market. He asked if we wanted to catch a ride. Why not?! The market was incredible. There were mountains of fresh fruits and vegetables.

olives

Cheese, yoghurt and butter by the scoopful.

Fresh honey

beans, lentils, nuts, seeds and spices

and hardware

Merchants were yelling what they had for sale. It reminded me of the One Pound Fish Man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETSl8gWsFZ0

After having our fill of the market, we walked along the Kizilirmak River and watched people feeding the ducks.

We crossed over the suspension bridge

and looked through some pottery shops, which the town is famous for. Many of them offered pottery lessons. It was hilarious to watch some people totally mangle what the master had started for them.

We decided to walk along some back streets when we noticed this strange little abode.

We went down a couple of worn stone steps and into a medieval looking shop. The owner told us it was over 10,000 years old. We believed him!

The shop owner was sitting next to an old wood stove, making pottery

He told us that he made every piece in his shop, and that his wife and daughter painted and decorated them. He said the more intricate ones took them 8-10 days to paint. We were so impressed that we bought a small dish.

I had been wanting to try the TESTI KEBAB. It is a stew cooked inside a clay pot. The pot is flaming hot (literally flames) when they bring it to the table. They crack the pot open then pour the steaming stew onto a plate for you. We stopped at a restaurant and ordered one. It was delicious as well as entertaining.

The next day we took a walk to Zelve Open Air Museum. It was basically a hike through different looking Fairy Chimneys. Some had huge stones balancing precariously on top.

There were some caves that were still actively used.

And others that looked like they were still used and definitely looked like fairies lived in them.

We came across one cave that we crawled through a small hole to enter. It was much bigger and brighter than I had thought it would be.

And it had a great view.

There were areas where the wind and water erosion was very evident. The wave-like formations were beautiful.

We came to an area where quad tours were in full force. The dust they stirred up was terrible, not just for breathing, but for the accelerated erosion it would be causing. They were terribly noisy and absolutely broke the wonderous beauty and tranquility of this magical place.

The magic was broken and the weather looked like it was going to storm. We headed back to town.

The next morning Pierre got up before me and after looking out the window told me, “It snowed. At least 8-10 inches.” He is always joking with me and I thought this was his way of coaxing me out of bed. When I did look out the window THIS is what I saw.

It had been at least 20 degrees Celcius that day before and to wake up to snow was a shock.

Erkan had the wood heater blasting when we went up for breakfast. We sat and enjoyed good conversation and tea for the rest of the day. Everyone’s transportation got cancelled, as well as all the reservation people that were due to arrive that day. Erkan let us all stay an extra day.

SIDE NOTE: Erkan raises tumbler pigeons. They are a special breed of pigeon that can do backflips while in flight. It is believed they do this to avoid attacks from other birds. Erkan was proud to show us videos of his pigeons in flight. He said his pigeons performed very good, and he has had people come over from the USA to buy one chick for $10,000!! They are very fussy and delicate to raise, and he was diligent in going to feed, water and bed them. For that price, I would too.

The next evening we caught our bus to Denizli.

It is pronounced Camel Coach, get your mind out of the gutter….