Yesterday we started our tour of Cappadocia, which is a large region of Turkey.

We left Selcuk early, flew into Kayseri Airport early from Izmir and drove to Urgup where we met our guide. Then we went to the Devrent Valley (also known locally as the Imagination Valley) which has some really interesting rock formations. The rock formations were caused millions of years ago by volcanos and ash. Most of the cones are topped by darker stones which erode differently from the cones (differential erosion).

It was quite cold and breezy when we landed in contrast to the coastal weather we’d been having. We saw tons of snow from the airplane near the airport. Kayseri is about 4000 feet in elevation and the highest mountain nearby is around 12000 feet.

Next we went to the Pasabaglari Ruins, or “Fairy Chimneys, formed due to erosion of the ash and accumulation (tuff). The bodies are composed of tuff ( a soft rock formed of compacted volcanic ash, sometimes including pumice and scoria), tuffite and volcanic ash and topped with harder basalt. The softer bodies erode, leaving a mushroom cap type appearance.

There are also many caves in the “fairy chimneys”, some of which were churches thousands of years ago. Some have been turned into pigeon houses now. Pigeons were important for agriculture at one point…for fertilizer.

After this stop we had a great Turkish lunch with various appetizers, salad and bread before continuing on.

Our next stop was a pottery store…it was interesting to learn the difference between the inexpensive and expensive plates and bowls…it has to do with the amount of quartz in the plates, the uniqueness of design, whether hand made or pressed. Good quality pottery can withstand fire easily.

Our next stop was the Goreme Open Air Museum, which is where many of the aforementioned churches were located. The area resembles a vast monastic complex composed of scores of refectory monasteries placed side-by-side, each with its own fantastic church. There are eleven refectories within the Museum, with rock-cut churches tables and benches. Each is associated with a church. Most of the churches in Goreme Open Air Museum belong to the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries.  

We then checked into our cave hotel, which is very nice, built into the side of a cave…my room has no window but is well lit. The only kink in the reservation was road construction which meant our bags had to be dragged quite a way and we also ended up going down one way streets the wrong way to reach it, and there are many stairs, no elevator, to reach the ground level (which fortunately was our level).

And that ended day 1 in Cappadocia.