Cappadocia - Land of the Fairy Chimneys
The next day we took a short flight to Kayseri which is located in the Cappadocia area. This region is made up mostly of this type of rock called "tufa" which is pretty soft and easily corroded by wind (or carved by humans). Because of this, the entire landscape is filled with "fairy chimneys", and caves. It is said that the early Christians actually took refuge in these caves and have even carved entire underground cities under them, most of which has not even been found.
Kaymakli Underground CityWe visited one of these so-called underground city in Kaymakli and was amazed by the extensive tunnels that leads from one room to (I think) hundreds of others. In one community, it has actually a stable for horses and a central kitchen. In fact, if not for the colored arrows that point which way to go (exit or enter) most of us would have gotten lost.
Scenes from CappadociaWe then hopped on the bus and travelled to various other places such as Pasa Baglari and Uchisar where the local community had integrated these tufa into a part of their lives. The houses they lived in was carved right into the rock. We even visted a ceramic factory in Avanos that has its entire workshop underground, carved into tufa. Another highlight was the Goreme Open Air Museum which are churches carved into the tufa. These churches contain many paintings left by the Christians, most of them depicting biblical themes such as what we saw at Hagia Sophia at Istanbul.
More scenes from CappadociaProceed to Konya | Back to "Istanbul - Part 1"
Back to "Honeymoon in Turkey"
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