Some of Turkey's More Unique Landscapes

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After nearly a week in Istanbul, I opted to take a four day detour to see some other parts of Turkey. My first stop was the town of Goreme, in Turkey's central region of Capadoccia.

Capadoccia is famed for its bizarre landscape, which I thought looked like a strange combination of the American West, the moon, and a Dr. Seuss book. The dominant feature is the "fairy chimney," a structure that forms when lava is eroded from around conical towers of volcanic ash. The Turks, not being quite so silly as whatever English-speaker came up with the name for these formations, call them kalelar (castles).

The main draw in Goreme, apart from the landscape, is the Open Air Museum. Basically, the site consists of a grouping of churches and dwellings carved into the fairy chimneys like caves. Some of the churches are very elaborate, with columns and domes hewn into the ash, and colorful frescoes covering the walls. It was interesting to imagine the hobbit-like existence that some of the earliest Christian communities must have led living in the caves around Capaddocia.

Capaddocia is fairly far east in Turkey, which meant that at this time of year it was quite cold, especially at night. During my night there, there was a power outage to boot. The result: no heat. Nonetheless, I had a very pleasant time hiking around the strange rock formations, climbing up to ridges for views, and exploring other caves and churches that I encountered.

After my second day in Goreme, I caught another night bus (my favorite form of overnight accomodation, it may seem like). I was nudged out of a deep sleep at six o'clock the next morning and told to get off the bus. Groggy and disoriented, I stumbled down the steps, where I was intercepted by a hotel owner who apparently was expecting me, as his friend in Goreme had called ahead and told him to look out for my arrival. This guy drove me the remaining 20 km to my next destination, Pamukkale.

Pamukkale's claim to fame are its calcium formations and pools, called travertines. All over Istanbul's travel agencies are posters of these gleaming white pools, with tourists frolicking in the water and having a great time. As I was to find out, things have changed in the years since the photos for those posters were shot.

To get to the travertines, which are high up on a hill, visitors have to remove their shoes and socks and walk barefoot up the calcium encrusted ridge. I knew before my arrival that it was no longer possible to swim (or frolick) in the pools, but what I didn't know was that the travertines can scarcely be called pools anymore. There's almost no water in them. Apparently tourism hit the travertines pretty hard. As the area developed, the water flows were diverted and the pools came close to drying up.

The trip wasn't a total bust though, since further up the hill (mountain really) from the travertines are the ruins of Hierapolis, the Roman/Byzantine spa town built around the natural hot springs there. Many of the ruins are quite ruined, but there is a fantastically preserved amphitheater. I also got a little carried away taking pictures of myself with my camera's self-timer.

I had a pleasant stay in Pamukkale in spite of the town's attraction's diminished present state. The room at the pension I stayed at there was probably the nicest I've had since I've been away. After my day climbing around the travertines and ruins, it was back to Istanbul, on a bus, of course

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Photos

Capaddocia
The strange landscape around Goreme.

Goreme
Here I am posing in front of one of the rock carved structures at Goreme's open air museum. This cave complex was, I believe, a convent.

It's Not Ice!
It's calcium. Here I am on the walk up to Pamukkale's travertines.

Ancient Stutuary
Amid the ruins, a statue of an ancient hero. (Or perhaps a modern dork.)

Comments

[anonymous]

I really would like to visit goreme area too. I have a home in Larnaka so Turkey is very close to me,I am employed as spec ed teacher in Floirda,before that,I was History teacher,and Turkey always was an interesting country to visit. Now I would like to visit those areas you are mentioning on your blog. Did you fly with THY or Delta?? [e-mail]