Cappadocia

After our hot air balloon ride, we returned to the hotel to have breakfast with the rest of the group before heading out to explore the region.

Our first stop was the Goreme open air museum where there were many churches preserved from the 11th century. We learnt that lots of volcanic ash called ‘tufar’ by the Turks was compacted over 200 million years and then shaped by the elements to form the structures we see today. There are actually only 100 local people living in this particular area of Cappadocia today with most coming from outside towns to support the tourism needs of the area. The churches in the area are very sacred and hence attracted many religious people over time. We learnt that Christians were living in this region for the first few centuries AD in hiding from the Romans before Christianity became the official religion in 4AD. For this reason, many martyrs came from this region. St Basil was from the region and made Christianity a more social religion with monasteries - the monks used icons to teach and learn about Christianity.

We explored the many cave churches and admired the different frescos and intricate paintings on the inside of these churches. In the 8th century, icons were banned and they were all destroyed so the icons we saw painted onto the walls of the cave churches were all from the 9th century onwards. Most of the churches we saw, were from the 11th century. The first church was the Buckle Church which had the most elaborate paintings on the walls. Really beautiful! We also visited the St Basil Church, St Barbara Church, Apple Church (which had an icon of Jesus holding the world in his hand which was mistaken as an apple later on) and Sandle Church (named due to the nice sandles depicted on the icons painted on the walls!) We also visited a kitchen and dining room area (two separate caves). In the 12th century, when the Turks arrived, these churches were abandoned. We couldn't take photos inside the churches but we took a photo of a sign which depicts examples of the paintings inside of the cave churches.

After exploring the churches, we jumped back in the bus and went to visit a clay master in his workshop and learnt about how he makes his clay products. His name is Master Selim and he was very friendly and spent a lot of time showing us the whole process of making his clay products. He has been in the profession for over 30 years. We even got a demonstration of how he makes some of his items and then it was our turn to try! Gab jumped on the pottery wheel and made a very good looking bowl, after initially setting out to do a vase!

We then had pide for lunch (with lots of extra bread and dips!) before returning to the hotel to have a nap after our early wake up!

We then went out with the group for dinner in a nearby town for a very light dinner after being very full from our bread-heavy lunch! We then returned back to the hotel for a much needed sleep after our early start!Okumaya devam et