Cappadoccia and the wonders of RICE!

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I left off with the camera full of Permukkale water! Six days in a sealed container of rice and 2 days drying in a warm room with an occasional blast of hot air from a hairdryer worked magic and the camera seems fine. The long term story may be different but I'll worry about that later.

We are just back in Dalyan after a great visit to Cappadoccia in Central Turkey. No driving this time. We went by dolmus (mini bus) to the local centre, a bigger bus to Antalya, a plane to Kayceri, a luxury pick-up car to Goreme and then a variety of mini buses to see the area over 3 days.

It is quite spectacular – luna and eerie with thousands of houses , monasteries and churches carved into the rocks. Traces of most ancient civilisations are evident from the Hittites, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Christians, Byzantines and Ottomans. We went down two underground cities – one 8 floors deep could house 10,000 people when they needed to hide from their enemies. The multi level city had stables, kitchens, storage areas, churches, schools and even a wine making room. In the cave dwellings, you see pre-Christian art, stories of the life of Christ and symbolic Arabian paintings.

Last visit we were taken with the friendly Turks including every shop keeper with a cousin in Canberra, who loves Aussies -OI,OI,OI and who will do the best deal in Turkey if you will only just please come into his shop. We fell in love with the richness of the coastal landscape and how it is is impossible to forget antiquity – ruins lie everywhere.

This trip the Turks are as friendly as ever but the market sellers and bar owners in Dalyan now recognise us as almost locals and say “Merebat” as we pass by. Our waitress in the local coffee house can't speak much English but we all laugh and joke in sign language. She calls Col – the Big Boss and tries to give me the bill every time!

This time what has struck us is Turkey's diversity.
1. It stands at the junction of east and west with Mt Ararat, the Lycian Way, St Pauls trail and a story that goes back to Paleolithic period. It is still clear that the next seven civilisations each left their mark on the landscape, architecture and people.
2. Away from the coastal mountains and beaches we saw volcanoes, high plateau's, beautiful river valleys, lush farming lands, arid windswept plains and the spectacle of Cappadoccia.

I think the photo's will tell a better story than I can.

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Photos

Each morning if it isn't windy the balloons fly low through Goreme
I was at eye level with the balloon as it went silently past our room at 6.30am on a glorious still morning.

Weird and wonderful
Volcanic eruptions changed the landscape. The hard basalt coating at the top and the softer sandstone helped create this lunar world.

Multi story housing development
Rose Corp wasn't the first to do multi level developments - the ancients thought it up first!

Guess who?
Behind us is Goreme the town we stayed in. It is almost all cave hotels and built exclusively of volcanic rock.

Fine detail
You always go to a pottery, a rug factory and a jewellery centre when you are at the mercy of a bus tour. NNo rugs this trip - but one little piece of pottery snuck into my luggage.

Lace making
Also showing off the lens on my camera- 18x wide zoom lens...

A toy
It might be a toy but it almost looks like this in reality.

Looking towards Goreme town
The cave rooms are cut into the sides of the hills but are not underground like White Cliffs so each has a window and even a verandah.

Presenting our dinner
The chicken casserole is cooked in an earthern ware pot. When itcomes to the tqabke they crack open the pot and your dinner is bubbling away inside

Chicken in clay
The finished dish as it was served up

Inside Kaymakli Underground city
Looking into various rooms. The grates cover food storage areas

Urgun ( pronounced ''Urg") our guide
In this Muslim country it is amazing to meet and listen to guides fresh out of university who have a greater grasp of the Christian life, symbols and the travels of the early saints than do most people at home.

Cave painting of Christ
Many figure paintings have their faces scratched out because the early Muslim invaders objected to the depictions.

Soganli Valley
We walked 3 kms through the valley and up along the hills looking at it's Byzantine Rock Tombs

Derinkuyu Underground city
The inhabitants were either very short or had cricked necks all the time as this was how you had to move between levels and rooms! Either this or steps - hundreds of them down first and then up!

Ihlara Canyon
We did a magnificent 4 km hike through this beautiful sheer sided, lush canyon beside the river. However the 300 steps down to start with didn't please my knee too much.

Hassan Mt 3262 m - 3rd largest active volcano in Turkey
The area of Cappadoccia lies between the 2nd and the 3rd biggest volcanoes in Turkey. We flew over one near Kayseri and drove close to this other one.

Strange conical hills are frequent
No-one explained what they were or why they were so geometric. But thye sat in verdant fields and looked fantastic

Storm clouds gather
As we were leaving for Kayseri airport the skies turned on a spectacular display for us!

Comments

[Hakan Guzelgoz]

Great Post & Pictures!
Thank you for this great post & Pictures! As you went to Cappadocia, I thought you might want to hear about our recently opened new design Cave Hotel - hezen hotel. http://www.hezenhotel.com

[Martha Mollison]

What fabulous pictures! Thanks for sending them. We're currently studying Turkish in prep for our trip there next year.--Martha and Phil