Sunday 19th August (Goreme)
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| A Cave Hotel Room |
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| The Al Fresco Breakfast Room |
This morning,
the hotel
doesn't look so bad. I still don't have water to my sink, but
arrives nice and hot to my shower.
Strange shower this one. There's no shower tray. It shares the
same floor as the toilet, and drains away through a hole in the
floor. It means that if you want to use the loo after showering,
your feet get wet. (As does the book you're reading!) The hotel is
one of many with some rooms built into the caves (although my room
isn't).
I was picked up from the hotel at 9.30 and taken to the tour bus.
We didn't stay on it very long, however, as the tour started with a
"hike" through the countryside.
Three volcanoes are the cause of the rock formations here. Over
the years they have spewed out ash of various densities, and weather
erosion did the rest. It's thought that the Hittites started carving
the caves 4000 years ago. The rocks are very soft, and are still
being constantly eroded. The path therefore was quite slippery in
places with a surface resembling a very course sand. Along the side
of the path there were very low bushes, which on closer inspection
turned out to be grapes. So obviously I grabbed a bunch and wandered
along the path like some latter day Roman emperor.
We next visited Cavusin, a village where people were living in
caves until the mid 1960s when they were forced to move out because
of an earthquake.
During Byzantine times, chapels and monasteries were hollowed out
of the rock. Sometimes, the decision was to build high instead, and
"rock castles" were the result. Again, like Cavusin, those at
Uchisar were lived in till the 1965 earthquake.
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| Rock Castles at Uchisar |
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| A Cave Cafe |
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| The Cafe Owner. Born and Living in a
Cave |
Lunch on this trip was superior to anything I've had so far on my
travels. It was a huge "eat as much as you like" buffet. All
authentically Turkish. Fantastic.
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| A Fairy Chimney |
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| A Cave Church |
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| Cave Church Interior |
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| A Camel-Shaped Formation |
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| Formation seen on the back of the old 50
YTL Note |
After lunch it was on to Zelve to look at some fairy chimneys.
Personally I don't think they were made by fairies at all, but by
wind erosion, but I could be wrong. A visit here to one of the many
cave churches.
The rest of the afternoon was spent looking at other rock
formations, and then on to the Goreme Open Air Museum.
By the end of the second century, a large Christian community had
formed in Cappadocia.. This complex was a combination of monastery
and religious school for training Greek Orthodox priests. It was an
active Orthodox centre till 1927 when the remaining inhabitants
moved to Greece. There are 15 churches here, and they have been
preserved as a national park.
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| Goreme Open Air Museum |
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| Cave Church |
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| Cave Church interior |
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