Whether you believe the Bible literally and think Noah's ark landed on Mt Ararat after sailing for forty days and forty nights or you are more of the ilk that Ayla might indeed have been adopted by a group of Neanderthals who called themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear there can be no dispute that Turkey has been inhabited for millennia.
Cappadocia, a small region in the center, has three things that make it outstanding; first is has a magical fairy tale landscape created from eroded volcanic tuff, second this same soft stone has resulted in a plethora of archeological sites of all ages many well-preserved enough to make the UNESCO list, and third it has used the hook of this interesting geography to very successfully build an extremely lucrative niche market, hot air ballooning, making it attractive to rich tourists and bringing general prosperity to the region.
My first day I got up to watch the hot air balloons take off at dawn. A back of the envelope calculation (actually done on a cell phone) revealed well over $500,000 tourist dollars merrily floating away in the air. And this is an activity that takes place 365 days a year. And all these tourists have to eat and sleep and buy stuff too. And, apparently, it is a slow season as the situation in Syria has negatively affected tourism throughout Turkey.
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| Exactly 100 ballons go up each morning before sunrise ... and the teams are practised enough that they land the balloons right back on the trailers! |
After breakfast I walked to the Goreme Outdoor Museum where a slew of churches and temples, some the size of small gyms, were hollowed out of solid rock. They often have only one tiny access door and every inch of the walls and ceilings are elaborately painted with vibrantly coloured biblical scenes.
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| No photography allowed in the painted churches, this detail from the cover of a book... |
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| ... though it's allowed in the 100's of others that scatter the many valleys and canyons in the area. |
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| Note: The above was a hidden church, no direct sunlight got in, to get to it you had to go through a tiny 10m long tunnel with a flashlight! |
Next I went on a four hour self-guided hike through the Red and Rose Valleys past incredibly breathtaking landscapes and countless more troglodytic sites of various ages. (Notes: valleys, like mountains have lots of up and down, and, also, the heat is the afternoon is not perhaps the best time for such an activity.)
On my list for day 2 is to catch a local bus to go to visit a 7 story underground city that was once home to 10,000...
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| Map of one of the 100's of underground cities recently rediscovered. |
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| You'll note the sign says that this was a winery... might as well live right if you're going to live underground. |
And, it being Turkey, everything is cheap by Western standards. In Goreme I get to stay in a real cave (not an ancient cave but a real cave) in a lovely establishment with a garden and a . pool and full breakfast and they charge me the almost embarrassing price of $15/night.
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| My nook in a (modern) cave room. |
PS Apologies, especially to fellow teachers, for formatting inconsistencies.
