Cappadocia

Cappadocia is pronounced “Kappadokya”, and means “land of the beautiful horses”.

This is where we arrived next, a fantastical land of crazy rock formations, cave monasteries and underground cities. If Iceland seemed like another planet, Cappadocia often seemed like another world, one in which unicorns and centaurs might roam (yep, pretty much Narnia). In this world, they often didn't want you flushing toilet paper down the toilet, but putting it into the bin provided instead. Weird.

 

Cappadocia

We stayed at a comfortable hotel recommended by Mark and Joy – funnily enough, they had visited Cappadocia right before they got back to Istanbul and hosted us. The hotel had beautiful lamps and curtains.

pretty, sparkly curtains

The hotel also provided complimentary breakfast, of which we always take advantage. We got a proper taste of Turkish music this way. That's right – they had Turkish music videos playing on the TV during breakfast, and we were treated to the top of the pops (we assume). They reminded us of the Spanish flamenco music (uh oh!); all the songs sounded basically the same, most of them were sad songs about heartbreak, with the same-sounding riffs and chords. One of our hotel hosts informed us one of the singers was a famous gangster, who'd got shot a couple of years ago (and is still alive). Turkey's pop scene is way more exciting than New Zealand's!

We started off our adventures in this land with a wander around the little town we were staying in, Goreme, and visiting the nearby Goreme open air museum. This is apparently the oldest cave monastery in Cappadocia, consisting of numerous churches built into the rocks. Some of these were all painted up inside with icons. Annoyingly, it was always forbidden to take photos inside the ones with pictures on the walls. We found some later on though, elsewhere, where we were allowed to snap away, so if you're hanging out for that you won't be disappointed.

They had carved staircases into the cliffs

 

and into the buildings themselves.

 

Most of the paintings were more interesting than this. This is from the iconoclastic period, when pictures were forbidden. Since this part was outside we were allowed to take photos of it.

To fit as much as possible into our visit, we decided to do a popular guided tour on our second day, the Green Tour, for which we got driven round in a van to several cool destinations between 9.30am and 5.30pm. It was a full van, with about 15 of us, mostly couples, from all over the place – Indonesia, Tunisia, Spain, Chile, South Korea, China, even New Zealand.

Our first stop, after a quick stop at the Goreme Panorama, was Derinkuyu underground city. John describes it:

Derinkuyu is the kind of place that, once you know it exists, makes you wonder why this sort of thing hasn't been done a million times elsewhere already, and then you realise that perhaps it has, and then you get all paranoid about Morlocks.

Derinkuyu is an underground city, with a carrying capacity reaching into the tens of thousands. In this part of Turkey there are hundreds of underground cities which are being discovered all over the place, and some of them have multi-kilometre long tunnels connecting the cities. It's pretty much science fiction. Archeologists think that they were first built by aliens Hittites, as refuges for people to flee to when under attack. The tunnels are cramped, with stone doors that can be rolled over the entrance to tunnels, with holes in the middle, all the better to stab you through. Great stuff. There are ventilation shafts that punch through the layers, and communication tunnels that carry sound, but aren't large enough for people. It's really well thought out, even for a place that would have been built over multiple generations. We were able to go down eight or so layers to the church at the bottom. In the Christian era, there were many Christians who lived here, hiding from persecution underground. On the one hand, it's kind of nice to be underground, away from the extreme cold and heat, but on the other hand, the people who lived there would have been relying on oil lamps and candles for light. Not a very nice thing if you're living there for many months.

Most of the caves were like this.

 A door.

 The big ventilation shaft.

 Some of the tunnels were rather tight. Good thing we don't have claustrophobia.

 

Some parts were rather open and airy. John could even stand up straight!

There were many tunnels where crouching was the order of the day.

 

From the bottom of the ventilation shaft.

It was good to have commentary as we explored, otherwise I think it would've just been a whole bunch of indeterminate underground rooms.

Next up was Selime Monastery, another collection of churches and other rooms dug out of rocks. If the monastery in the Goreme open air museum is the oldest in Cappdocia, this one is apparently the largest. Our guide related how it was initially a monastery, before being converted to a camel stop under the Seljuks.

 Multi-level cave dwellings.

 Most of those holes at the top are accessible via shafts and stairs.

 One of the churches.

Inside another of the churches. The blackened surface is from the fires that were lit inside the buildings when it was a caravan stop, covering any decorations with soot.

After consuming a hearty complimentary lunch at a restaurant, all part of the package tour, we took a walk along the floor of the Ihlara Canyon. We could imagine how it could look beautiful, but in mid-November I don't think it was looking its best. It was still a pleasant walk, especially after the mid-way break, when the guide let John and me go ahead of the rest, who were enjoying cups of tea. This meant we could go at our own pace, instead of at a crawl.

 First stop in the canyon. A church that we're allowed to photograph! This is the ceiling.

Most of the canyon was like this.

 There were a bunch of these little windows and doors at various levels on the cliff walls.

 Yes, one of those.

Where we stopped to have a break.

The guide's instructions to us were clear, and reminiscent of the Bible's: follow the path straight ahead, don't turn to the left or the right, and the van will be at the end. It's straightforward. We mostly went as he directed, but then we saw a sign pointing to the left, to a church up a mere 300 steps or so. We figured we were far enough ahead to pop up and see it. So we did, puffing by the end. Then we rushed back down guiltily, and caught back up to the group as they were nearly at the van. Phew!

 The painted church!

Various saints and/or apostles.

We continued our tour with another great viewpoint over Pigeon Valley, so called because of the niches carved out into the walls of the canyon. The people who carved them used pigeons for three purposes: their eggs as a binding agent for the paint in the frescoes, their droppings for fertilizer, and the pigeons themselves for communication. Hey, just like how they use owls to communicate in Harry Potter! Across the road from the lookout point was a shop selling Turkish Delight. More importantly, it had tons of piles of free samples of the stuff. Mm mmm! Mentions of Turkish Delight always put me in mind of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Second Narnia reference!

Our tour concluded with a trip to an Onyx factory, where we saw an expert craftsman carve an egg on a base from a block of onyx, then sand and polish it to a smooth and beautiful surface. This was probably the least exciting part of the day, as we got trooped through to the adjoining shop and invited to survey all the onyx jewellery they were selling, showing us all the different colours it can go in different lights, as well as other kinds of gemstone jewellery. A simple pair of earrings cost 414 Turkish Lira. “Don't worry,” the shop assistant laughed, “it's Turkish Lira, not dollars!” Even so, that's still over NZ$200. I didn't like the dominant colours of onyx anyway – brown and green.

It had been a very interesting day, and we thought the tour well worth it. Funnily enough, given the Turkish tendency to try and sell you as much as they can, I was expecting more pushiness from our tour guide at the different shops we went to, especially as they no doubt have a deal with the tour company that takes us there. However, our guide seemed more the jaded sort, who'd done this so many times he was more inclined to get going. Funny – he made me feel like I needed to go when I might've bought stuff if I'd had longer to browse – the opposite of what I expected!

We still had a full day to go in Cappadocia, as our flight left at 10pm the next day, and we spent it walking. From our 11am check out to our 5pm return to Goreme, we took a walk down Red/Rose Valley, getting slightly lost in the middle, followed by a walk down Love Valley, which turns into White Valley. So many valleys!

The start to the Red/Rose Valley was the roughest of any walk we've done on our trip: narrow tracks for our feet, ladders connecting parts too steep to manage otherwise, scratchy trees grasping at us. I felt a little like Snow White. Once we got beyond that, though, the rest was fairly easy, apart from a section where we lost the trail. The trail was basically arrows, normally accompanied by “red” or “rose”, painted on rocks along the way. This is why we're still not sure whether our first walk was along Red or Rose Valley. Whichever it was, it was great. I've decided the rock formations are what I found most fascinating in Cappadocia, so I enjoyed our walks on the last day the best out of the activities we did there.

For lunch, we stopped at a Kebab World in a tiny town between the two hiking trails. As we walked along eating them, we realized a dog who had come up to us at the takeaway place was – well, dogging us. We figured she wanted the kebabs. We didn't oblige by giving her any. I take a while to eat, but even once I'd finished mine, she was still following us. We had left the town behind, and were walking along the side of the main road. It took us at least half an hour to get from the takeaway place to the start of Love Valley, and John finally commanded her in his best dog language: “Go home!” I suppose it worked, for she finally left us. All the dogs in Cappadocia seem nice and chilled out, roaming around as they do, and she was no exception. Still, there was nothing for her in Love Valley (no metaphor intended).

Initially the track led us down between two banks, so we couldn't see that much of the incredible rocks on either side of us. Then the track started to get wet in places, and I was wearing my holey sneakers, so we clambered up one of the sides, and found a parallel track up there. We did this a couple more times on our way, and got to see more of the amazing scenery. I think White Valley had the most outlandish scenery I saw in Cappadocia; it was the place I most felt didn't really belong on Earth. I sort of couldn't believe what we were seeing. The sense of the exotic was helped by the fact we virtually saw no one else on either of our walks.

 Needs no caption.

 John for scale.

 Parts of the valley were more like a canyon.

bizarro, fabulous landscape in the White Valley

Upon our return to Goreme, there was something we still needed to do. John still hadn't tried a Turkish coffee. So we went to a cafe and he did that. His impressions:

The coffee came in a small cup, basically a gulp's worth of dark liquid. Knowing a little about what I was up against I let it sit for a while before taking a sip. It was creamy and sweet, and not as grainy as I was expecting. Nice. I'd go for it again I think. By the time I got to the dregs, the cup was still half full. I think that's as much as I was meant to have, but I'll have to look it up later if I remember.

We followed that up with a dinner of Turkish pizzas, called pides and mighty tasty, which came with free tea. That wasn't the first time we'd been treated to free tea when out to eat in Turkey, either. We started out on the wrong foot with Turkish hospitality, thanks to the pushy shopkeeper guy in Istanbul, but we had come to really appreciate it by the end of our visit to Turkey! I even tried some tea, traditional as well as the apple variety. The apple was my favourite.

Again, excepting the pushy shopkeeper guy in Istanbul, we had an amazing time in Turkey. The exotic, the fantastical and the free stuff – we loved it.