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Published: June 25th 2008
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Cappadocia is a high desert region of central Turkey. It is famous for its astounding landscapes which are decorated with peculiar rock formations. It is an otherworldly place with the strange shapes of the rock towers and pillars rising against the clear desert sky. Canyons of eroded red rock, the valley floor green with scrub, vegetable plots and trees such as olive, walnut, apricot and mulberry can be hiked through easily. The vegetation is sparse enough that losing the trail doesn't cause panic stations. The remains of cave dwellings make the walking even more exciting. For centuries, even millenia, people have carved homes into the soft cappadocian rock, utilising and expanding upon existing cavities and creating homes of many rooms and churches of great beauty. Cappadocia was a place of refuge for early Christians for centuries, roughly from the 3rd to 11th centuries AD. During this period monasteries existed and were active in communities. But there were also many monks and hermits living up in the caves in near constant meditation. Frescoes of unique quality were painted in hundreds of churches carved into the cave rock. Some are huge with elaborate columns, two stories high, others are just a tiny space
with room for only a few people. Today many of the best preserved frescoes are at the Goreme open air museum and the Ihlara valley.
Although it is a stretch to call the Ihlara river a river (stream, burn or creek would be more accurate), the gorge itself is very dramatic and amazingly beautiful. Many monks inhabited this area and churches are sprinkled along the valley. It took us two days to walk through it, spending a night camping halfway at Belisirma. We started at the massive and stunning ancient monastery of Selime. It is cut into huge rock mounds of beehive shapes, and seems to be a labyrinth of chambers, chapels, stairways, passages, stables, niches and sanctuaries. Just imagine those monks living there all those centuries ago. What would life have been like in those dark chambers? The monastery must have looked incredible at night when illumianted by lamplight. Many of the decorated carvings on columns and around doorways still survive, despite the velocity at which the cappadocian rock erodes.
From Selime it was a leisurely three hour stroll up the canyon to Belisirma. The village is quaint and traditional looking, built onto the steep slope of the valley.
Brown stone houses seemed to blend into the hillside and the scene seemed biblical. Cow and goat herds passed through, the tinkle of their bells echoing through the canyon, their herders proudly leading them astride donkeys. On the valley floor there are a string of restaurants with seating literally on the river. The friendly people at Tandirci restaurant were kind enough to lend us a tent, so after eating a slap up meal there and drinking all the tea we could manage we pitched the tent behind the restaurant and hit the hay. The next days hiking from Belisirma to Ihlara took longer as we spent a lot of time scrambling up to look at cave churches along the way. The views were spectacular, as were the frescoes but sadly many of them were badly eroded and graffitied. People seem to especially like to deface the faces of the depicted figures. However, trying to identify the themes, shapes and characters was interesting and fun. The designs and geometric patterns are beautiful, as were the expressions on faces and gestures of hands and bodies. Themes and stories were often repeated from church to church but each had its unique style and
distinct use of colours and degree of realism. Of course they frescoes were often painted centuries apart. Painted straight onto rock about 1000 years ago it's a wonder any of them survive. They are open to the elements and eroding fast, being helped along by the defacers. We saw a few other tourists along the way and met some boisterous and gregarious villagers who were tending their crops. They befriended us, took a bunch of pictures with our camera and ate most of the remainder of our food then went back to their hoeing. Most tourists visit the valley on organised tours from Goreme. Although getting there by public transport was time consuming and tedious it allowed us to walk the whole valley at our own pace, without having to be in a big group (although we did have the company of three eager to please dogs on the second day).
Goreme is a pleasant small town reliant on tourism. The rock pinnacles, or "fairy chimneys" jut up all through the village and many caves have been made into hotels. Some are just houses, with satellite dishes hanging outside. The rooms inside are cool, spacious and elegant. We stayed at
an excellent place called the Rock Valley Pension, with nice rooms, a swimming pool, attractive communal areas and very kind staff. We spent some days hiking in the valleys around goreme. Usually easy walking but can be slippery if you don't have the right footwear. It was also pretty hot in the middle of the day, but the caves offer some respite from that.
Derinkuyu is the largest of Cappadocia's underground cities. Perhaps people began using the subterranean chambers here during the Hittite period but they were definitely in use by the 7th century BC. Over the next few centuries it was elaborated on to a remarkable size, 8 levels of underground living spaces connected by long tunnels and hidden shafts. It was equipped to shelter an entire community for 6 months at a time if they needed to hide from marauding armies. They had devised clever ways of defending themselves if they ever were discovered such as trapping the invaders in small compartments where they could pour hot oil on them from above. It must have been a terrible, claustrophobic existence, but remarkable nonetheless.
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Keith
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Bizarre place - looks interesting
Hi Skemily - enjoying your blog..... the Cappadocia region looks very spectacular. Strange geology and very rich history. What crops are grown there? It looks pretty arid, but you mention hoeing turks.....Keith