I would say
your trip to Turkey can’t be complete if you don’t visit Cappadocia. It will be
like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower. The landscape of
Cappadocia doesn’t look like it is a part of this Earth. It looks like a
mysterious place with unique geological and historical features with many
underground cities to unravel.
The tour
guide picked us up from Kayseri airport and straight away took us to unravel
the mysteries surrounding us. Our first stop was the Devrent Valley, also known
as the Imaginary Valley due to its resemblance to the lunar landscape. Gazing
upon the Devrent Valley we were confronted with overwhelming natural beauty
with no civilization for miles. The extraordinary landscape is an archeological
wonder filled with fairy chimneys, rock pillars, amazing volcanic structures
and unique rock formations.
From Devrent
Valley we headed to Zelve Open Air Museum. Until as recent as 40 to 50 years
back the houses carved in the rocks had been a part of a cave town bustling
with cave dwellers living in a honeycombed fashion. The Christians and Muslims
lived together in perfect harmony. You can still see the Cave Churches and the
Cave Mosques. The inhabitants had to ultimately move out due to the dangerous
risk of erosion and had to finally settle in modern villages. It is extremely hard
to imagine that people chose to stay there for such a long time without any
electricity or technology. I am no one to judge but really have respect for
those who stayed there since they valued their fellowship more than the
comforts of materialistic world. I can certainly say that they were richer than
us in every way for they spent quality time with their friends and family without
any modern day distractions of phones, television or other gadgets that sidetrack
us from our own people. Although now a ghost town it takes 2 hours to walk
through the valley to see the entire place. I would encourage everyone to take
a walk through the valley and go through the cave tunnels and houses in which
once a civilization thrived and flourished. The government is trying to restore
the place since the erosion continues to take place.
Later we went
to Pasabaglari also known as the Monks Valley to see the three headed fairy
chimneys. From the beautiful fairy chimneys we went to Avanos where we
saw pottery demonstration and I got to try my hands on the potter’s wheels. It was my first experience and I did manage to make a pot. After a hard day’s labour our tummies were rumbling and we were taken by our travel guide to a beautiful restaurant by the side of a lake where the ducks were swimming and we were relishing the view coupled with the scrumptious Turkish cuisine.
Later we
headed to Uchisar rock castle. This perforated rock castle has many
interconnecting rooms and staircases, tunnels and passages. It is said that a
1000 people could stay in it at one time. One thing is certain that seeing
these places makes you wonder if you are on another planet. Even whilst we were planning the trip I had already decided to stay in one of the
original rock castles. A word of caution - there are many hotels which claim to
be rock castles but are not originals and have been created only for the
purpose of tourism. So after a lot of research and asking I finally found an
authentic rock castle with fairy chimneys as well. I really wanted to stay in a
fairy chimney but only a couple can stay there and not a family of 4 coz they are tiny rooms. Of course
the rooms had been modified to help the tourists stay more comfortably but I
was happy to see that our bedroom was one of the original rock caves where
people lived. So after an overload of sightseeing and an early dinner we
retired to our rooms for the night so that we could be fresh in the morning to
unravel the strange land that we were in.
The morning
welcomed us with breakfast under the open sky surrounded by the extra-terrestrial
landscape. Gagan and Shweta had got up very early in the morning to go for the
hot air balloon ride which I feel is compulsory; however we backed off due to
our small lil kids. Our first stop for the day was the famous Kaymakli
underground city which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of the
largest, organized and structured underground cities with 8 stories under the
ground out of which only 4 are open to the tourists. In its hay days 5000
people could easily live there. The whole tour takes about 2 hours so put on
your comfortable walking shoes and be ready to bend and crawl through the small
corridors.
From there
we made a short stop at an old Greek town called Mustafapsa which became part
of Turkey after the Greco-Turkish war. After crossing the town we went to
Taskinpasa Medresesi an Ottoman theological school. Later we headed to Keslik
monastery which has beautiful frescos dating back to a 1000 years. It is a must
visit place even if you are not an art lover. After the Keslik Monastery our
guide took us to Cemil - a Greek orthodox church.
Later we
went to another UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited tourist place -
The Gerome Open Air Museum. The museum has rock cut 1000 year old churches,
frescos and monasteries. After spending about 2 hours we headed to Esentepe for
the magnificent panoramic view of the Gerome Valley. The beautiful trees
covered with evil eye makes the place look even more splendid. With this we
concluded our stay in Cappadocia and were ready to take our flight to Izmer the
next day.
