Village Cave House

In my first post about Cappadocia I mentioned that we stayed in a cave hotel in Göreme. It was quite unusual, but very fascinating. The hotel was in the huge rock that you can see in the top photo - you can actually see the entrance to it in the lower part of the image. Here's a better look:

All the rooms were accessible from outside, obviously there were no hallways. That meant each room had its own patio or terrace which was wonderful on those late warm evenings when we could sit outside and read and plan the next day. The view was amazing.

Just to give you an idea how low the door to our room was:

We had a three person-room. It was huge, very generous and cool (great in the hot summer). There was a beautiful sitting area beneath the window and tea and coffee making supplies. No further decoration except for the amazing fabrics they use in this country. Apart from that, just naked rock.

We had our private bathroom as well,  very clean with sparse decor.

The road to the hotel was narrow - I try to include a video I made with my phone while driving from the center of Göreme up to the Village Cave House.

This was the view on our last morning in Göreme - the hot air balloons. On clear mornings with perfect conditions dozens of hot air balloons float over the rugged area. The view from up there must be amazing - it's one of the most popular things to do here. Unfortunately we didn't - but if we should ever come back I think we will.

By the way - this was my 1000th blogpost!

In the Land of Fairy Chimneys

When we visited Turkey we didn't limit our time to Istanbul even though we could have easily stayed a couple more weeks there (and still not see everything). But we wanted to explore more of Turkey, go into the interior. So after one week in Istanbul we rented a car, crossed the Bosporus into Asia and started our "Anatolian adventure".

One area we wanted to see no matter what was Cappadocia, a historical region in Central Anatolia. Here you can find exceptional natural wonders that are characterized by fairy chimneys and a unique historical and cultural heritage. The UNESCO World Heritage Site consists of Göreme National Park, Kaymakli Underground City and Derinkuyu Underground City. Except for the last one we visited all of these places - and they truly took our breath away.

So what are these "fairy chimneys"?

The relief consists of a high plateau over 1000 meters altitude (hot summers and cold winters) that is pierced by volcanic peaks. The sedimentary rocks of Cappadocia eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars and the people carved out houses, churches and monasteries from the soft rocks of volcanic deposits (this happened from the 4th to the 11th century). There are entire underground cities that you can visit if you feel like it (more about that in a later post).

Many of these "cave houses" or "cave apartments" are deserted today, but some are still inhabited. We could see signs of life everywhere. These places offer coolness in the very hot summers and seem to be reasonably warm in the cold winters (yes, it can snow here). I'm not quite sure whether I would like to live in such a cave, however, we did stay in a cave hotel in Göreme and it was pretty awesome (more about that in a later post).

Most of these photos were taken in Uçhisar, about 5 km from Göreme. All at once we saw these fairy chimneys rising in front of us. I just wanted to stop and explore. So we parked the car and walked down into a beautiful valley from where we could see dozens of these unique housing units. It was our first real view of this area and until the end it remained my favorite one.

The rock has a slight pinkish hue that starts to glow at sunset. It is simply spectacular and a sight that I will never forget. Except for fruit trees (apricots!) and olive trees there isn't much shade here and the sun burns down mercilessly. But you almost don't feel bothered by the heat in this other-worldly landscape.

Can you see all the "apartments"?