Cappadocia

So today we were up at 4 to start our Hot Air Balloon adventure. Kirah's bucket list to ride one in Cappadocia or Kapadokya as it is actually called among the dozens and dozens of other balloons ticked off.

It was a fantastic ride, We saw the sun rise and floated over the beautiful valley. The balloon pilot landed the balloon and basket right onto the balloon trailer, one set of skills there.

We came back to the hotel, had brekky and met up with our guide Ozguryag or Ozzie for short. The places we saw today are:

Derinkuyu Underground city - amazing but not for those with claustrophobia, pretty small tunnels in a couple of sections.

There are about 600 outside doors to the city, hidden in the courtyards of surface dwellings. The underground city is approximately 85m deep. It contains all the usual rooms found in an underground city (stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, churches, wineries etc.) Apart from these, a large room with a barrel vaulted ceiling on the second floor was a missionary school, the rooms to the left being study rooms. 

It was built so that the air at the bottom was as fresh as the air at the opening and it has a constant temperature of approx 17°. These were built to protect the Christians from being s slaughtered by the Roman Soldiers when Christanity was outlawed for a period of time.

Pidgeon Valley - The name comes from the thousands of pigeon houses that have been carved into the soft tuff since ancient times.

Although they can be found throughout Cappadocia, they are especially numerous in this valley. They were carved wherever space allowed, including abandoned cave houses and churches. In Cappadocia, pigeons have long been a source of food and fertilizer.

The use of chemical fertilizers has reduced the use of pigeon dung. However, some farmers still maintain their lofts because they insist that the reputation of Cappadocian fruits as the sweetest and most succulent in Turkey is entirely due to pigeon dung.

Evil Eye Tree - Above Pidgeon Valley is a small shop and out the back whete you can feed the pigeons stands the Evil Eye Tree. This tree is covered with gorgeous cobalt blue amulets called Nazar. These are amulets with an eye design on them that ate to prevent evil and promote good luck.

Ozxy told us that the story goes that if you have a picture taken in front of this tree you will get married within a year 😁😁😁

From there we went onto the Goreme Onyx Jewellery place where we were shown the Turk Quartz or Turquoise and how it ages and how under different lights the stone shifts colour. Beautiful jewellery.

Then onto Guray Muse which is an underground cave museum displaying antique & modern Turkish ceramics, pottery & artifacts. The pottery here is all made by the family that own this place. Lovely people and it has been in the family for seven generations.

We were shown the process of how they make the pottery/ceramics and sculptures, amazing detail and dedication.

We were then allowed to use the potters wheel and with a bit of help made our own piece of pottery. Loved this place.

After lunch and a nap we headed back out with Izzy and saw Fairy Chimney Valley, a surreal landscape of carved-out towering rock formations, change color with every sunset.

The rock formations that emerged due to a geological process that began millions of years ago. Ancient volcanic eruptions blanketed the region in thick ash, which later solidified into a soft rock called ‘tuff’. When the natural forces of wind and water (erosion) did their work, only the harder elements (basalt) were left behind to form the ‘fairy chimneys’ that can be seen today, stretching as far as 130 feet into the sky.

A really quite and peaceful place.

We then went onto Imagination Valley where the fairy chimneys look like objects such as a Camel, Mother Mary, upside down wombat, lizard, two devish dancers and a number if others.

Last but not least we went out to Red Valley to watch the Sunset and drink a glass of wine or two. Stunning is all I can say.

We finished the night off at our local pub - One Way.Les mer