CAPPADOCIA

We had taken out a Blue Guide (2001, but we decided the history wouldn't change much) from the English library in Heidelberg months ago when we decided to go to Turkey.  We had numerous pages marked as being of interest during the free days between work commitments.  Once we realized we didn't want to spend the limited time we had mostly traveling back and forth from place to place, we settled on a trip to Cappadocia, about 300 km (180 miles) southeast of Ankara, as our only excursion. [On the map above, the center is around the 3rd city below Ankara - Nevşehir.]  Bayram was extremely helpful in finding us a hotel and a guide to show us around.  We left Thursday afternoon and came back Saturday morning.  That gave us one full day to tour around Cappadocia.  Ideally, one needs at least 2-3 days to do the area justice, but we were very pleased to have gotten the time there that we did.  [We can't copy the image of the map, but here is a link if you're interested: www.goreme.com/cappadocia-map-big.gif.]

This area has had human settlements in it since Neolithic times and was even mentioned by the (first) historian, Herodotus in the 5th century BC.  St. Paul came by this way, as did many other settlers and conquerers over the centuries.  There is a long history with Christianity and it is suspected that monks came here for the isolation.  In time they formed loose groups that evolved into monasteries.  These went underground (literally) when the Arabs began raiding central Anatolia in the 7th century.  There are churches carved out of the caves (with wall paintings and frescoes dating from the 8th-13th centuries), at least 40 underground cities, and fantastic natural formations due to volcanic activity.

The bus ride to Cappadocia went through mostly flat, rocky plains, but then there were hills with various colors in their soil: yellows, reds and orange.  The long-distance buses here have a driver (obviously) as well as at least one assistant who serves drinks and snacks and hands out hand cleaners regularly.  They stopped at a rest stop for about 25 minutes so that people could smoke (a LOT of people smoke in Turkey!), eat, drink and go to the bathroom.  The whole trip - including the minivan from the bus terminal to where we were staying - took about 5 hours, so we were glad to get there! We were staying at a hotel in Ortahisar which contains one of 3 rock fortresses that rise above the villages in the area (see below, left).  After settling into the hotel we walked the 5-minutes to the fortress (since our guidebook said it was open until 8:30 p.m.) and found it was closed.  However, an Israeli tourist said he had just climbed it and it was great.  Then the owner of a shop at the base said he would show us how to go up and that there was no charge.  So we followed his lead on a route that had us climbing around fences and over walls, up through holes and, finally, up a series of metal ladders to the top.  It was amazing to see the various rooms carved out of the rock as we climbed and then, from the top, to see the deep valleys and strange-shaped rocks below (see below, right).  There was a thunderstorm coming and it was extremely windy, so we didn't stay up there long, but we were glad we made the climb.  We thought it strange that there was nobody else up there - until we saw the sign when we got back down at the entrance that said "Closed due to to catastrophe!" Ah well, we made it up and back safely and are glad we got to do it.
 
After dinner, we walked around the small town of Ortahisar.  We noticed that there were a lot of men out - and only men.  They were drinking tea, smoking, playing backgammon and a mahjong-type game, and many of them were getting their hair cut and/or a shave. (There seemed to be more barbers (and pharmacists) in the town than anything else).  Clearly this is the norm for evenings.  We decided to buy one of the Cappadocia souvenir books from a local shop (cheaper than at the hotel and we'd rather give them the money), and the owner insisted that we come into the shop (he invited us for tea, but we were full from the hotel buffet) where he presented Elyse with a beaded bracelet. It's a nice memory/reminder and she wore it the remainder of the trip.  Sitting in the courtyard of the hotel that evening (a beautiful night with a full moon), we were struck with the number of languages we heard, including Spanish, French, Russian, Hebrew, German, and 'Strine (a strange form of English spoken in Australia).  Then there were the very loud frogs (would have drowned out the Hillsdale frogs easily)....

The next morning, we were met by our guide and driver.  We had considered renting a car and going around on our own, but realized that this would cost about the same and that we would probably learn a lot more (and be a lot less stressed).  We are so glad that we did.  The guide was superb; we learned a lot and enjoyed his stories and company. It was also nice not to have to worry about navigating.  We had a full day with them (9 a.m. - 6 p.m.) and saw a huge range of sights.

Our first stop was the Goreme Open-Air museum.  This area encompasses a good number of the cave-churches, as well as monasteries, chapels and rectories.  (It is estimated that there are about 600 rock-cut churches in Cappadocia, so "good number" is relative; let's say a good number of the elaborate churches that are open to tourists.) We visited about a half-dozen of the churches and each was impressive.  Many of these churches included domes, vaults, apses, columns and niches that did not, obviously, serve as architectural support.  They were beautifully carved though.  However, it was the paintings that really took our breath away.  There were layers of paintings in some showing their use by many over the centuries.  We could see the geometric designs done during the iconoclastic period of the 8th century when human figures were forbidden.  The later paintings and frescoes (up to the 14th century) were images of the life of Christ and biblical stories.  Here are some samples of what we saw.  None of the photos do the places justice (no flash photography is allowed), but it will give you a taste of what we saw.  You might notice that in many, the eyes have been damaged.  There are many theories about who did this: ancient Greeks (relic-gathering and/or using in potions), ancient Muslims (human forms are not allowed in art; destroying the eyes was a way of "killing" the subject) or maybe even in modern times after the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1924 (as an act against the Christian Greeks who had been sent out of Turkey).  Despite the years of erosion, vandalism and destruction, there was still plenty to keep us in awe!  Remember, these are all carved out of caves.

One of the other major draws in Cappadocia are the strange-shaped rocks that have formed over the years.  The area was formed by volcanic activity and the land was covered with volcanic ash (tufa) that was covered with basalt.  The basalt doesn't erode as quickly and determines the shape of a column of tufa based on how big a piece of basalt is on top.  Our next stop - the Pasabag Valley - showed this clearly with the "fairy chimneys" pictured below.  

Nearby Devrent Valley has different formations, including Camel Rock (guess which one!).  It was fun to come up with "names" for some of the other ones - like Napoleon's Hat and Baseball Glove.  Sort of like looking at clouds.  Or not. We would have loved to have had the time to hike through one of the valleys, but it was time for lunch so we had to move on.


We had lunch in Avanos, on a rooftop terrace of an old pasha's mansion that has been converted into a restaurant.  It was very hot, so we tried to eat a bit less than usual by Turkish standards, but that was still more than we needed.  It was all delicious.  We decided to skip tasting the Cappadocian wine with lunch so that we could stay awake in the afternoon.  But we didn't skip the dessert: dried figs slightly reconstituted with a sweet liquid and stuffed with walnuts.  Yummy combination.  The town of Avanos is known for its craftwork: pottery and tiles (5,000-year tradition in the area), jewelry, and carpet weaving.  So after lunch we were taken to Firça, a 250-year old family pottery "factory".  The pottery center is in a huge cave (4500 square meters) - that was a cool relief from the heat.  One of the family members took us on a tour (complete with a glass of tea, of course): first we saw a potter create a bowl on an electric wheel and then another potter create a covered bowl on a kick wheel.  They offered to let us try to make something - and Gerald was game to - but then we got side-tracked and that didn't happen. They showed us the kiln used to "bake" the clay, and then took us to the artists' section.  There were two people who were each painting the black outlines of designs on large serving platters.  One was painting an intricate geometric design, while the other was painting stylized fish.  It was amazing to see them create these stunning, detailed designs free-hand with such precision.  The next step in the process are the painters, who apply the variety of colors that are such standards in this area - deep blues and greens and a rusty red.  The final step was the sales pitch, of course.  The room we ended up in had (not surprisingly) the "museum-quality" pieces, then there was the room with the excellent quality pieces and, finally, the ones for daily use.  The museum-quality room really did feel like a museum.  There were  plates and bowls of different sizes, shapes and colors; traditional circle shaped (so that it could be draped over one's shoulder for pouring) wine jugs (see them on the back wall in the photo below); and lots of painted tiles.  It's times like these that we wish we were infinitely wealthy.  We fell in love with this tulip tile, but as it was about $1,000, we thought we'd take a photo instead.

The next stop on the tour was the village of Çavuşin, one of the oldest villages in the region.  The original residents had lived in caves and then others put vaulted "additions" on.  The whole town needed to be evacuated as it was found that it's collapsing on itself, but it was fun to wander around.  There was an old mosque that had a Jewish star on the outside.  When we asked our guide about it, he said that the design symbolizes pointers to heaven and hell.  We had some good views of the surrounding valleys, but the sun was too hot to stay out in the open for too long.

We had requested a tour of one of the many underground cities that exist in the area.  It is unclear how many of these exist in the area (some estimate about 300) or even why they were originally created.  They might have been for storage (some are still used for storage today), to protect animals and humans from the extreme temperatures, and/or (given the many conquering armies who went through the area over the centuries) to hide from enemies.  The larger ones that have been at least partially excavated have 18-20 levels and are estimated to have been able to hold about 20,000 people at a time (that's larger than all of Storrs!).  

Xenophon (Greek mercenary) mentions them around 400 BC:
"The houses were built underground; the entrances were like wells but they broadened out lower down.  There were tunnels dug in the ground for the animals while the men went down by ladder.  Inside the houses there were goats, sheep, cows and poultry with their young.... There was also wheat, beans, and barley wine in great bowls....

The one that we visited, Kaymakli, has about 8 levels and probably could have held about 4,000 people.  Only about 10% is open to the public for viewing and even THAT was impressive.  There were communal kitchens, but individual family rooms as well.  There were ventilator shafts, but they spread the "chimneys" out away from their fires so that the rock could absorb a lot of the smoke before it went out (so that enemies wouldn't see it and find them).  There were entrance tunnels from individual homes and the tunnels within the city were very narrow (so that only one enemy would be able to enter at a time if they did find the entrance, making it easier to kill the enemy).  Going down some of these was a bit spooky.  We had to bend at our waists AND our knees to walk down a ramp for quite a ways.  Claustrophobia would be a real issue.  It must have taken years to carve it all out. There were some interesting details: a large stone wheel perched on its side that could be rolled into place to act as a door to block a tunnel (pictured right); a large stone with "pockmarks" in it that was used as a pestle for grinding spices; many wine-making areas (with small "bowls" carved out for the grapes and then a carved "tube" that would let the juice run into a gathering bowl slightly below the first.  The city's well was 85 meters deep (they also had cisterns with water from the outside, but wouldn't risk using those if under siege.  Apparently they could survive for about 3 months at a time with their store of fresh and dried fruits and meat and their bread-baking techniques.  Amazing.

We had two "vista" stops on our way back to the hotel. The first was overlooking Pigeon Valley.  This valley runs for about 4 km (2.5 miles) and is dotted with conic stones with dovecotes carved out of them (below, left).  Apparently locals would use the pigeon droppings as a fertilizer (2nd only in effectiveness to bat poop, in case you're curious).  There must have been footholds carved into the rock at some point to be able to gather the goods!  But these dovecotes are everywhere throughout the area.  The second vista was Sunset Valley.  The photo below give you a sense of how the villages are built among the strange landscape.  Beautiful and strange.

We were parched by the time we got back to the hotel, so we were very grateful for the pool.  After a refreshing dip, we had a light dinner and tried to make notes about what we'd seen so that we would remember some of it later.  We walked through town - saw lots of men being shaved and socializing again - and then headed back for an early night as we had to catch the van to the bus early in the morning.  We had discovered the first night that the mosque in town loudly announced its call to prayer at 4:15 a.m., so we weren't quite as startled the 2nd night.  Can't say we found the exotic beauty of the sound at that hour. But it was a small price to pay for an incredible adventure.