It was sure nice to not have a 4:30 AM wake up knock and be able to enjoy the dark cool environment of our cave that allowed us to sleep like babies. We had a lovely breakfast on our hotel terrace and loaded up in a minivan for a day tour of Cappadocia.
The tour was nice and small consisting of only us two, a guide, and three other people. We began with a scenic hike through the Rose Valley. The region is scattered with ancient cave dwellings, modern day small family farms, and radical natural landscape formations. Below (and to the right) you can see the small pigeon caves the ancient natives dug to gather the birds maneur, the lush greenery in the valleys, Jennifer after having to rock-climb into one of the church caves, and lastly one of the small local farms.
The hike ended at one of the regions longest inhabited cave colonies. The mountainside pictured below with its numerous cut-out homes and chapels was occupied by natives until the mid 1960’s when erosion resulted in the collapse of large face of the community.
Our next stop was to a national park known for phallic geological formations that resulted from millions of years of erosion breaking down different layers of volcanic ash deposits. You can see in the pictures how the mushroom tip spears have a darker stone on top held up by a lighter color rock below. Over time the lighter stone succumbs to the wind, rain and snow quicker than the darker top rock that is more tolerant to these environmental elements.
Wilma's potential replacement when we get home!!!
Stop number four was to a family run pottery business that provided us with a personal tour of how they make their colorful handcrafted pieces. On our tour we learned how the clay was made, kiln fired, hand painted, and re-fired again. We also had the opportunity to watch a master at his trade create a vase on a traditional “kick” propelled pottery wheel. It was fun to see how easy he made it look to take a glob of clay and within five minutes form it into a beautiful vase ready to be dried and created into a finished piece of pottery.
With our busy morning, we were anxious for lunch and were pleasantly surprised by the feast the tour provided us. The highlights from lunch were a delicious chickpea soup and a dessert that tasted like a sweet corn cake served in the small little balls at nice Mexican restaurants.
After lunch we headed for the climax of the tour… a stroll thru the underground city of Kaymakli that was once inhabited by as many as 5,000 – 10,000 people. The city was massive with multiple layers of tunnels, stairways, and rooms carved into a mountain side. We went down about 45 meters (4 levels) and were told it may go another 50-100 meters but due to collapses, excavators have not gone further. The underground city was fully operational at the time (6th and 7th Century AD) with bathrooms, sleeping quarters, kitchens, wineries, and even stables. Walking the city was quite impressive as its scale was truly massive and the complexity of the planning rivaled our modern cities.
On our way home from the underground city we stopped to taste some local wine. Both of us were quite surprised with what Turkey, and specifically Cappadocia had to offer. While Napa Valley should by no means feel threatened, some of the wines were quite delightful. We bought a nice bottle of red and took the opportunity to take some final pictures of Cappadocia’s lunar landscape from our hilltop tasting location.
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