Turkey - Day 5 Tour - Cappadocia

We flew/drove in to Cappadocia late last night and could not see what was in store for us.

We are staying at the Guvan Cave Hotel which is made from thick igneous rock blocks and is quaint and gorgeous.

Opened the curtains earlier to this view ... Check the top right hand corner - I didn't see it when I took the photo ... This going to be fun exploring.

OK our guide met us at 9 am and we did a 2 km walk through the valleys, So the whole area (approx) 24,000 sq miles used to be a salt lake. About 50 Million years ago under neath the lake had volcanic activity and was continually shooting lava up into the water which formed the chimneys or tuff-coned formations.

The lake dried up and left these tuff-coned structures. People learned that the outer 10 cm was hardened but once you got through that it carved out more easily, however you had to do this in one go or overnight it hardened as the oxygen got to it.

In the eighth century Christians were being slaughtered by the Roman empire and they dug caves into these formations to be safe and hide. They built churches into these as well which still remain today full of paintings of Jesus and other religious icons.

The people that painted them would fast for 30 days and if they had a "dream" they would seek permission to continue to dream down that path. Then they would seek permission to draw thete dream if that was approved then they drew their dream and sought approval to do a painting in the cones churches.

The paintings first had to have the surface prepared and they used a plant /fine straw and pigeon droppings made into a paste and put it onto the wall/surface in the size they required for their painting.

The pain was made from natural dies from plants and foods. The trick was to get the painting done while the surface was still wet from the preparation.

What amazed me wad the sameness of the Christian religion and the Muslim religion. So many similarities when you get down to it.

We then caught a lift up to the Carpet Factory and they showed us how they are made and even had Kirah doing some knots, then they showed us the range. Beautiful is all I can say. So the quality is dependant upon whether it is made from silk wool or gotten and also how many knots per cm square. The highest recorded is 24 x 24 knots per cm2, these guys have one that is 20x20 per cm2. The detail was exceptional.

From there we had lunch - yummo and a nap back at the hotel as it was about 38° here and no breeze. After it cooled a bit our guide took us to the open air museum to see the churches and living quarters and learned the above.

We are booked in to do hot air ballooning first thing early tomorrow, learning how to do pottery and a host of other things tomorrow.

Had a few beers and dinner down the road and am now all tick up ready to sleep for our early morning.Read more