Bleak Anatolian plains, extinct volcanos, and whismsical rock formations. Subterranean cities, rock churches, and fairy chimneys. A super glamorous cave room and a magical balloon ride at sunrise. Disney? Universal? Fantasy Island? Where are we? Cappodocia… way, way the most surreal and magical place we have been.
We took a flight to Kayseri in the centre of Turkey. Here lie the stark Anatolian plains stretching in all directions bleak and moonlike. Rock tufs were formed 60 million years ago by layers of lava and ash from Mount Erciyes, Mount Hasan and Mount Güllüthe. The weather erosion of these layers over a few zillion years sculpted their shapes. Human settlement in the Cappadocia region dates back to the Paleolithic era. These are the lands where the Hittites once lived. And much later was one of the most important havens for Christians in the first centuries, escaping the dominance and persecution of those pesky Romans.
There is a couple of places in the world where a balloon ride at sunrise justifies the hefty price tag. We thought this was one. And it really was worth the 3.30 am wakeup!! As you can see from the pics we were not the only ones with that idea.
Pasabag valley contains some of the most striking fairy chimneys (yes that is the official name for them) in Cappadocia with twin and even triple basalt rock caps. Every where you look we could see little doorways and windows – Really appealed to the child in us. I just kept thinking Enid Blyton. “The Faraway Tree” and “The Wishing Chair.” Children whisked off to imaginary and magical lands. Somewhere just like this.
Groeme open air museum First an important Byzantine monastic settlement that housed some 20 monks, then a pilgrimage site from the 17th century, this is a splendid cluster of monastic Byzantine artistry with its rock-cut churches, chapels and monasteries.
Derinkuyu underground City. Guess who went. Guess who didn’t 🙂 There are about 200 underground cities in Cappodoccia. It’s possible there could be more lying below the surface, waiting to be discovered. Derinkuyu was found by accident in 1963, when a local family was renovating a house. A wall gave way revealing a room and passage that led to this underground network. So the big questions, who why and when. There are 3 theories.
It’s possible that the Phrygian people could have constructed the underground city around 800 B.C., as they occupied that area at the time. (2700 years ago)
Another theory suggests that the city was constructed by the Hittites in about the 14th century B.C., (3400 years ago)
However, some believe that the underground city is even older than that. It’s suggested that that caves were constructed by the Persian King Yima. Much like the account of Noah in the Bible, Yima was instructed to collect pairs of the best animals and people as well as the best seeds in order to reseed the Earth after the winter cataclysm. Some say the “winter” refers to an ice age. There are so many underground cities in this area altogether accomodating thousands of people. it is summized that maybe it was to survive a terrible long term event… like an ice age. The last ice age was between 11,000 to 10,000 years ago, placing the construction of the Derinkuyu underground city in remote pre-history. Crazy numbers crazy place.
The illustration shows the levels. Lance, his camera and his new pals went to level four. The city was able to hold up to 20,000 people. It has wine cellars, stables for livestock, pantries, kitchens and dormitories. The openings to each level are guarded by a huge circular rock door that can be shut by a single person from the inside. It also has an air ventilation and pluming system. The largest vent also acts as a well. It is an amazing sight… ( I heard hehe)
Seline Cathedral was carved out of incredibly high rocks close to Ihlara Valley. We go hiking there later. Here the first religious ceremonies were held by Christians 1,700 years ago. In order to conduct religious ceremonies secretly, they constructed a huge monastery with many tunnels and rooms. The workmanship was incredible beautiful archways and niches for candles and lovey murals on the walls. Although many of the murals were missing their eyes and parts of their face. I asked our guide and he said people in the past would pick the paint off the saints image and eat it thinking it was holy. And get this … the eyes were the most holy. So they went first – Holy Moly and double Yikes!!
Later the Seljuk Turks used the Cathedral as a castle, to protect themselves against the invading Mongols.
The Ihara valley time to take a hike. The valley has 10,000 carved rock caverns and 105 churches. Its a crazy place – I spent so much time looking up at all the carved doors and windows I tripped and went flying!! bloodied knee and bruised ego!
We saw many of these trees with glass evil eyes attached to them. While Lance was down in the underground caves I wandered the village and found a real Turkish carpet shop.
I have never taken pics of our rooms before because we are simple folk our rooms tend to be clean, cheap and cheerful. But our lovely Azize arranged for us to stay in a fabulous fancy cave hotel all carved into the rocks even the bed was a giant carved piece of rock (with a comfy mattress!) . She has all the connections that lass. So we stayed here. Lord and Lady Lum swanking it up in Groeme. (in a cave !!)
