Blogs from Cappadocia, Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 9

Located in Nevsheir (Cappadocia - Turkey) there is a huge underground city called Derinkuyu - home of many unsolved misteries and controversy... Some said that this city was built (digged) around 4000 BC others said it was founded more than 10000 years ago - there were some skelletons found dated 1800 BC... However the most amazing fact is its complexity and capacity - it can allocate more than 50 thousand people with a certain amount of comfort through its floors... It has from warehouses to store food, barns, chapels, kitches... everything... It is said that it was built under some security measures and secret chambers to avoid enemies atacks during a war - there are some floors that were scanned but wasn't even able to reach them and found the way that leads to those chambers... ... read more

I’m not trying to be rude; the title of this blog is my advice for anyone visiting Cappadocia. The open air museum at Goreme is good, but much more fun is to be had while exploring the surrounding valleys devoid of signboards, protective handrails, coach parties and entrance fees. We decided to stay in Goreme. Much literature tells how Goreme has now lost all of its charm, giving itself over completely to tourism. Whatever. We liked it. Yes there are lots of carpet shops, balloon flight agencies and endless guesthouses, but it is also right in the centre of some of the most spectacular scenery I’ve ever seen. Every day we set off in a different direction armed with a tiny hand-drawn map and lots of water. Red Valley, Pigeon Valley, Swords Valley, Rose Valley, Penis ... read more

From Istanbul, we arrived in the early morning in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, via an overnight train. Ankara was established as such by Ataturk in 1920 when he chose it as his base of operations in the struggle for independence. It was declared the Turkish capital in 1923. The city’s position in the centre of Turkey made it better suited as capital than Istanbul, both physically and symbolically. We visited the Anatolian Civilization Museum of Ankara which is housed in a beautifully restored 15th-century bedesten (market vault). The museum has displays of artifacts from the earlier Anatolian civilizations: Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Neolithic, the Bronze Age, Assyrian, Hittite, Phrygian, Uralian and Lydian AND Greek and Roman artifacts as well. You name it; they had an artifact for that era. Our journey continued to Cappadocia-Goreme. Our ... read more

Today we headed out from Ankara south to Cappadocia. More quality time on the bus but it is what it is. It is much colder yesterday and today than in Istanbul but not unbearable. The Atlantic snowstorm was the major topic as we boarded the bus. The people from the Northeast were happy to be here, as long as everything clears by the time we get back. Along the way, we verred off the highway to go through several small villages. We stopped for photo ops with a bunch of sheep and their shepherd. We saw lots of melon squash grown but they only use them for the seed, not to consume. They dry the seeds on their flat roofs for selling. Dried squash seeds are a very popular snack. Our guide spent most of the ... read more

Cappadochia is one of those places in the world that has you going "Wow" everywhere you look. The scenery is stunning and the addition of the balloons in the sky for the morning is great. As we said earlier we had to wait an extra day to get a booking and there was the possibility that our flight may be cancelled due to thunder storms looming. Having been on the flight now I see why the weather is such an important factor as you truely are at the mercy of the wind. We were picked up at 05:30 for our flight and taken to Kapadokia Balloons office where there was about 60 people waiting to fly. Graham our pilot was from England and flies n Cappadochia for 6 months of the year and then in the ... read more