We arrived in Cappadocia...after a bus/plane/taxi/hotel/taxi/bus.....it was that or the dreaded overnight bus..no thanks. We stayed in the Kismet Cave Hotel in Goreme. Our room was not an actual cave room...but we did get to peer into them. You can see the cave looming over the back of the property.
Beneath the honeycomb cliffs of Goreme, the locals live in fairy chimneys. The fairy chimneys were formed when erosion wiped out the lava covering the tuff (consolidated volcanic ash), leaving behind isolated pinnacles. They can reach up to 40m high, have conical shapes and are topped by caps of harder rock resting on pillars of softer rock. It makes for the most incredible landscape! I could barely walk through town without tripping on something because I kept looking up!
I'm pretty sure the Flintstones lived here....Fred? Barney?
Goreme Open-Air Museum was first an important Byzantine monastic settlement that housed some 20 monks, then a pilgrimage site from the 17th century. The fresco filled "Dark Church" was named due to that fact that it originally had very few windows. The lack of light preserved the frescoes vivid color. You had to pay extra to get into the Dark Church...and it was well worth every penny (or lira). We were the only ones in it! Blissful peace from the throngs of tourists outside.
Cappadocia is surrounded by valleys that you can hike in. Rose Valley, White Valley, Love Valley...all stunning.
At the end of the day we hiked up above Goreme. We drank a bottle of Cappadocian red wine while watching the sun set over the fairy chimneys. The hair raised on our arms when the call to prayer echoed across the valley. So eerie!
This is Pigeon Valley, filled with colorful dovecotes. The pigeon houses peppering cliffs and fairy chimneys where traditionally used to collect the bird's droppings for use as fertilizer. The valley is filled with flying pigeons.
The underground city of Derinkuyu. During the 6th and 7th centuries, when Persian and Arabic armies set off to vanquish the Christians, beacons were lit and the warning could travel from Jerusalem to Constantinople in hours. When the message reached Cappadocia, the Byzantine Christians would escape into secret tunnels leading to vast underground cities. This particular one was thought to hold 10,000 people and had over seven levels. We saw stables, churches, ventilation shafts, granaries, a blackened kitchen, and wine rooms. Not for the claustrophobic.
Ihlara Valley..a favorite retreat of Byzantine monks, who cut churches into the base of its towering cliffs. The entrance down has 360 steps. We walked along the river at the bottom.
The restaurants at the end of the gorge had river platforms that you could dine on and tables submerged in the water. Nothing like having a nice frog between your toes while sipping your soda.
Selime monastery has a vast kitchen with a soaring chimney, a church with a gallery around it, and stables with rock-carved feed troughs. It looked like something out of Star Wars!
The church, with intricately carved walls. There were once frescoes, but the smoke has long since blackened them.
Uchisar Castle...a tall volcanic rock outcrop riddled with tunnels and windows. We could see this in the distance above Goreme. Again...very Star Wars! Back to Istanbul for a few days of travel planning....then on to Venice!
We arrived in Cappadocia...after a bus/plane/taxi/hotel/taxi/bus.....it was that or the dreaded overnight bus..no thanks. We stayed in the Kismet Cave Hotel in Goreme. Our room was not an actual cave room...but we did get to peer into them. You can see the cave looming over the back of the property.
Beneath the honeycomb cliffs of Goreme, the locals live in fairy chimneys. The fairy chimneys were formed when erosion wiped out the lava covering the tuff (consolidated volcanic ash), leaving behind isolated pinnacles. They can reach up to 40m high, have conical shapes and are topped by caps of harder rock resting on pillars of softer rock. It makes for the most incredible landscape! I could barely walk through town without tripping on something because I kept looking up!
I'm pretty sure the Flintstones lived here....Fred? Barney?
Goreme Open-Air Museum was first an important Byzantine monastic settlement that housed some 20 monks, then a pilgrimage site from the 17th century. The fresco filled "Dark Church" was named due to that fact that it originally had very few windows. The lack of light preserved the frescoes vivid color. You had to pay extra to get into the Dark Church...and it was well worth every penny (or lira). We were the only ones in it! Blissful peace from the throngs of tourists outside.
Cappadocia is surrounded by valleys that you can hike in. Rose Valley, White Valley, Love Valley...all stunning.
At the end of the day we hiked up above Goreme. We drank a bottle of Cappadocian red wine while watching the sun set over the fairy chimneys. The hair raised on our arms when the call to prayer echoed across the valley. So eerie!
This is Pigeon Valley, filled with colorful dovecotes. The pigeon houses peppering cliffs and fairy chimneys where traditionally used to collect the bird's droppings for use as fertilizer. The valley is filled with flying pigeons.
The underground city of Derinkuyu. During the 6th and 7th centuries, when Persian and Arabic armies set off to vanquish the Christians, beacons were lit and the warning could travel from Jerusalem to Constantinople in hours. When the message reached Cappadocia, the Byzantine Christians would escape into secret tunnels leading to vast underground cities. This particular one was thought to hold 10,000 people and had over seven levels. We saw stables, churches, ventilation shafts, granaries, a blackened kitchen, and wine rooms. Not for the claustrophobic.
The restaurants at the end of the gorge had river platforms that you could dine on and tables submerged in the water. Nothing like having a nice frog between your toes while sipping your soda.
Selime monastery has a vast kitchen with a soaring chimney, a church with a gallery around it, and stables with rock-carved feed troughs. It looked like something out of Star Wars!
The church, with intricately carved walls. There were once frescoes, but the smoke has long since blackened them.
Uchisar Castle...a tall volcanic rock outcrop riddled with tunnels and windows. We could see this in the distance above Goreme. Again...very Star Wars! Back to Istanbul for a few days of travel planning....then on to Venice!
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