Cappadocia

We took a very early morning flight from the Aegean coast to the region of Cappadocia in central Turkey. We spent several days exploring the main three towns of Cappadocia and all that this charming region has to offer. This region is rich with history, having been ruled by the Hittites, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Ottomans, just to name a few. And, being located along the Silk Road, it also received cultural and religious influences and goods from all over the world. To add to an already rich region, the geography and physical features make this area seem like a dreamland out of a child's imagination.

We actually began our Cappadocian adventure underground. There are huge cities underground that were used as escape routes and hide outs from invaders (particularly Romans). The townspeople could rush inside these underground spaces, block the entrance tunnels, and then either live for extended periods of time or run to a nearby town and emerge. We probably walked a total of 2 miles underground and really only saw a fraction of the underground passageways, kitchens, wineries, bedrooms, and churches -- all deep underground.

We then went the opposite direction and climbed high above the town of Goreme to the open air museum which was a former Byzantine monastery, housing for community members and pilgrims until into the 1800s. The site is mostly comprised of caves, often built into large cliff faces. Today there is a beautiful walk around the area and many of the churches are open for visits to see these small chapels with lots of paintings and even a few skeletons.

We saw other examples of cave dwellings, where people hundreds of years ago dug into caves to build out housing for their families. Today, many of these still exist and have been "finished" with house facades, electricity and plumbing. We had the chance to visit a few: one was the inn where we stayed. This inn was the former house of a wealthy Christian family. The young couple who owns it bought it a few years back in disrepair, with the second floor missing and walls crumbling. We got to see pictures from the house in the early 1900s when it was still intact, when they bought it, and then during restoration. Each "space" from the original house had to be restored and no new spaces created, per Turkish preservation code. This meant that each room was formerly a very unique space: we stayed in the stables, the room next to us was the chapel, there was also the hay loft, wine cellar, etc. Pretty fun to sleep in a cave for the first (only?) time!

The second cave house we visited was when we went to a local family home for lunch one day. Our host had been a cook in a big hotel, but she needed better hours to be home with her kids more, so she now hosts traditional lunches in her house. Her house, also built into a cave, has been in her family for 4 generations. It certainly is an interesting prospect to think about how these cave homes have addresses and how the renovation work happens! In another cave, we got to see a traditional regional pottery demonstration with foot-cranked pottery wheels and traditional methods passed down from father to son over many, many generations.

One evening we attended the Sema Ceremony of a Whirling Dervish community in Cappadocia. The Whirling Dervish ceremony began under Rumi, known to the community as Mevlana, a Sufi mystic and poet. He lived in nearby Konya, Turkey and taught different ways of experiencing God to the Islamic community. The ceremony we witnessed is divided into several parts which we could follow with the little "cheat sheet" provided. It was quite an interesting religious ceremony to observe -- so different from our usual! Because it is a religious ceremony, no photos are allowed, but they do give a brief demonstration after when they allow photos.

To cap off our Cappadocia experience, we splurged on a hot air balloon ride our last morning. We had a very early wake up call and then shuttle out to meet our balloon. In the dark, we could hear fans around us blowing up balloons and then the flash of fires to fully inflate the balloons. Initially, we could see about 4 near us, then as they inflated, we could see about 12. But by the time we were airborne, we could see 80 or more! The whimsical scenery (honestly, magnified by SO MANY balloons in the air at once), was a magical way to end our time in Turkey!