Devrent Valley

Another popular stop on the Cappadocia tour is Devrent Valley. The "fairy chimneys" come in a variety of sizes and shapes, some spires, some mushrooms, some, um, other things. Devrent features "the camel" as well as many other structures. You can make up your own names for them if you like. It's part of the fun.



Ortahisar

Tuesday, after departing Camping Kaya, we spent the day mostly in scenic driving, walking, gawking, etc. Fortunately, all the relevant sights in Cappadocia are pretty close together. Unfortunately, low-sulfur diesel in Turkey is now well over $8 per gallon.

First up was the village of Ortahisar, famed

for its "castle," a huge spire carved up into

a variety of chambers, terraces, etc.

Parking with the big dogs; despite the appearance,

Ortahisar is one of the least touristy of the sights; the buses

roll in, park on the square, everyone runs out and snaps a

few pix of the castle, buys a half kilo of dried apricots, and

hops back on as the bus continues its rounds

We liked our parking spot so well we stayed a couple hours,

walked the main drag, did some grocery shopping, had

lunch in the camper, and watched as--for once in our

experience--the call to prayer occurred, shops and cafes

actually closed, and the men walked to the mosque (the

women stayed home preserving their modesty, no doubt);

there were many other manifestations of traditional,

unaffected village life to see, some of interest, some pitiable

Preview of upcoming "cats of turkey" post

View from the top (of the castle); another castle

Air Show

Tuesday morning I was up sufficiently early to witness the lift-off of the Cappadocian air flotilla. There are perhaps a dozen firms operating out of Goreme that do early morning hot air balloon flights. At one point I counted 33 balloons, but could not picture them all. The small gondolas carry 12, the large ones 20. Flying tour buses. They all launch from the canyons just below our campground. We pondered doing this--it is much more affordable here than in the US or elsewhere--but then the weather closed in, low clouds, and we decided to try it next time.

Meskindir and Rose Valleys

Monday we took a long walk from our campsite down into the Meskindir Valley, through it to the Rose Valley, and then back up a long ridge to the campground above Goreme. These are uninhabited valleys nowadays but give a good glimpse at the terrain and at the work done at various times to make them habitable.

In the Meskindir, really more a canyon than a valley

Typical Meskindir terrain

Cliff dwellers

We passed through numerous arches, natural bridges, and

tunnels in the rock, most natural, I think

Opening out into the Rose canyon now; note sophisticated
signage

The Three Sisters; wait, no, it's the Three Musketeers...

The Howling Dog, or maybe the Howling Cat...

Spiro's Spires

The Organ Pipes; yes, I am making this all up as I go

Now atop the ridge that took us back to the campground, a

view of the Rose Valley; for days now, we have been

amazed at how much central Turkey looks like the American

West; but no cowboys nor Indians, nor rodeos, nor Mint
Saloons, however; minarets in the distance, calls to prayer,
figs and dates, pistachios, rugs, more rugs, camels, tour
buses...

Goreme Open Air Museum

Cappadocia is best known for its 100+ square miles of "fairy chimneys," those unusual geological formations that, over the past two millennia or more, have been hollowed out to become churches, monasteries, residences, villages, even underground cities; and now, major big-time tourist attractions. Over the ages they served as refuges for Christians hiding from Romans, from Persians, from Muslims, et al. They are scattered all over the landscape, but there are 8 or 10 concentrations, the most famous of which is probably Goreme, and its Goreme Open Air Museum.

Another World Heritage Site

It is difficult to convey the scale of Goreme--it is several acres but few distinct 
"buildings"; this photo show a small bit of the complex

Goreme was primarily a collection of abbeys and nunneries 
and such; no residences, at least in the village sense; here's 
Vicki sitting at a stone refectory table that could seat 40

Some of the chapels were done in very primitive ways; iconoclasm

Of all Goreme's assorted chapels and churches, our favorite was the Dark Church 
(no relation to the Dark Lord, although it did have an addtional 8YTL entrance 
fee); here the 10th and 11th century painting is impressive, even defaced by the 
conquering Muslims (typically, they only scraped away the eyes; later hordes of 
mostly Greek tourists, at other sites, would deface them completely with their 
names and signatures) 

More Dark Church

More ditto, with digital issues

Old guys rule

Ceiling view

One last scene

The Nunnery; now condemned, no entry

Obligatory St. George/snake (sort of a dragon) in another chapel

In the Tokali Church, also 10th-11th, a shade of blue most unusual for the time and 
place

The Goreme museum is adjoined by the usual bazaar of tourist shops, the most 
interesting of which was the wine store; Cappadocian wines are respectable, if 
not yet great; I am enjoying a pleasant red wine, lighter-bodied, fruity; the whites 
I tasted varied but some, especially the Uchisar, were very good indeed; what? 
your local wine store does not carry Turkish wines?!

Camping in Goreme

We got to Goreme, the main destination in Cappadocia, in fine order, and headed to the Goreme Open Air Museum, the main sight, theorizing that we could spend a free or low-cost night in its parking lot. This worked out fine, and gave us some insight to just what a mad-house Goreme can be even in the off-season. Happily, the tour buses left by 7PM, and we had the place to ourselves.

The Goreme Open Air Museum parking lot, next morning;

we are parked, grid-locked, at the bottom left; but it was OK;

we were touring the museum

It being time to wash, water, dump, etc., we spent the next

two nights at the very nice Kaya campground, overlooking

the Meskindir and Rose Valleys, Goreme, and practically

everything else in Cappadocia

Meskindir Valley, from our campsite

A few of the nearby "fairy chimneys"

Not all that far away, Mt. Erciyes, whose eruptions millions

of years ago laid down the dominant surface rock layers of

the area; differential erosion has done the rest; it is nearly

13,000 feet high, almost perennially snow-covered, known

to the Hittites as "White Mountain"; only Ararat, in

eastern Turkey, is higher

The campground had other advantages, including a market,

a rug store (!), and bunches of grapes hanging from arbors
all around; ripe, too

On to Cappadocia

From Ankara we drove on east and south, taking in the great variety of scenery and countryside. Turkey is not a huge country--about the size of Texas or California--but its variety of landforms and scenery is impressive. And so far we have seen only a bit of central Turkey.

Gooseherd

It's been years since I have seen a Gulf station, but they're

alive and well in Turkey

A rural cemetery, rough stones as markers; Muslim

cemeteries do not appear particularly well manicured

The road from Ankora to Goreme, particularly the high

plains, are fairly littered with tumuli like this and the one in

the background; sometimes they are double tumuli (his and

hers?); none signed in any way; must look this up...

Sugar beet harvest, mile after mile

High plains, central Turkey