How to describe our experience of Cappadocia?! It is not far from magical and transformative, taking us to a history you feel you can live too.
The story of Cappadocia is as fascinating as it is mystical and spans eons of time. 10 million years ago three neighbouring volcanoes coughed and spewed out volcanic ash and lava over the region creating layer upon layer of varying colours and densities of their deposits. For an unfathomable amount of time water and wind has sculpted the landscape into weird and wonderful towers, peaks, ripples and, yes, phalis’. The landscape alone is something to be seen to believe. Throughout the day, from dawn to dusk the sun deepens and stretches the unique forms and crevasses across the dusty backdrop. Tones of pinks, lime greens, yellows, and greys blend and brighten depending on the time of day.
Beady eyed from our 14 hour night bus from Istanbul, we wandered around the smaller, more charming town of the tourist heavy area, Usçinar looking for accommodation. Due to unexpected (we were unprepared) chilly weather, our first introduction to Cappadocia had a light sprinkle of snow…
And cold toes.
Breakfast and wifi was on the immediate agenda.
Stumbling into Zen cafe and boutique hotel felt more than luck. It feels so good to accidentally stumble into the perfect place. The dining room looks right across to the Usçinar Castle and its surrounding “Cave Houses”, it has to be the best view in the area. After scoffing down the vast Turkish breakfast we moved straight into their loveliest, part cave-style bedroom and with the same stunning view as the dining room – We were winning.
Besides the colours and shapes of the landscape, the astonishing part of Cappadocia is the caves and churches that have been carved into the rock. After a few days exploring the area it is clear, this was not a random, sporadic community taking the time and care to chisel away intricate warrens; this is centuries of human habitation and must have been a vibrant area. Caves are everywhere, in the vertical cones/chimneys, high up in the cliffs, and as far below your feet as 60 metres.
Cappadocia’s central position has made it an important route for trading (part of the Silk Road) and therefore conflict. Over the centuries the landscape has been chipped away by various different tribes, faiths and empires, all leaving their mark.
The first known settlers were the Hitities around 2000 BC, this area became their refuge from raiding warriors from Asia and Europe. The valleys and the nature of the landscape allowed them to spread out and create hidden homes, quite often strategically high up with no apparent access or to really fox a raider they had a greater fall-back plan, they dug deep, underground. We visited Derinkuyu, a 5 storeys deep city, chiselled out of the bedrock, tentatively working around the faults and cracks. The intricate series of caves may be only a temporary safety bunker, so short of decorative details, it still was engineered to house thousands of villagers. You would expect that run of caves, corridors and tight, steep stairways would be damp, smelly and lack oxygen, especially 60m down below, however there was no sign this. They stopped and diverted their path through the rock if they came across the water table, and burrowed ventilation vents periodical throughout the complex that ensured a flow of fresh air but also dispersed wood fire smoke safely to the ground level atmosphere. Ingenious. Perhaps healthier living than some houses built in the last 70 years.
After the Hittites and over numerous centuries, came a series of new settlers to the area, taking over the underground cities and crafting new dwellings but most notably it was the persecuted and shunned early Christians who made their mark. Before Christianity was established (313AD by Emperor Constantine), Cappadocia became a safe haven for believers, knowing that they could practice, preach and convert without fear of being found and punished, as a result the land is peppered with hundreds of churches carved into the rocks. They vary in size, detailings and ornateness – How long must it taken them to chip away that volume of rock?
Many have been preserved in ‘open air museums’, these tend to be the ones with colourful frescoes. Protected from the damaging rays of the sun, the ”dark church” is still vibrant with rich colour and detail, it hit us as soon as we entered. The frescos depict the stories of Christ for a then mainly illiterate audience, it wasn’t difficult imagining the hope these stories would have brought to people, people looking for answers, shelter and community. Note that any Ottoman travellers/dwellers would have defaced the faces on the frescoes when they stumbled on these churches.
Pigeons played an integral role in Cappadocia. Also perched high up in cliffs and living in the rocks meant that humans and pigeons had a symbiotic existence; the people used the pigeons’ egg whites in the paint for their church frescoes, and their poop as fertiliser. All the dwellings – church and residence, had nooks with curious little alcoves patterned around the walls where the pigeons would live. The cooing and purring of these many birds must have been a comforting backdrop to the communities daily life.
While there are many museums you can access with a ticket and many other tourists, it is the churches you find when wandering through the colourful valleys which really touched us. Simple, refined, elegant, waiting to be discovered – these are truly spiritual spaces.
As iconic as the fairy chimneys themselves, a hot air balloon at sunrise is a Cappadocia must-do. A first time for both of us, we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to view this spectacular landscape from up high, 800metres high.
A shocking 4am start to ensure you beat the sun’s ascent, meant it was particularly nippy but the anticipation, fire, colours and slowly rising balloons soon diverted our attention.
Then, we lifted off….. hundreds of technicolour mammoth balloons suspended, gently rising and falling in the morning sky.
No more words, here are the pictures:
We spent our last day in Cappadocia adventuring in the Rose and Red Valley, it was like Nature’s Playground. We had the best time; an afternoon of awe, joy and, yes, even spirituality. #panatripping
