Our early morning flight to Kayseri (an industrial city of one million located in central Turkey) incorporated what seemed to be a second thought about landing the plane at the airport. We ended up quickly gaining altitude instead, circling around and trying again -- this time successfully.
Our bus met the plane at the airport, and off we drove into Cappadocia ("Land of Wonderful Horses"). We'll be here in the area, staying at the beautiful Uchisar Kaya Hotel, for the next three nights. During the course of our first day, we stopped at three different spots. The first provided a general overview of the unusual geological formations that predominate hereabouts.
Once a sea, volcanic lava and ash displaced the water. As the various layers eroded, "fairy chimneys" emerged and from several thousand years ago people began hollowing out dwellings, stables and store houses from the easily-carved, quite soft rock. The resulting inhabited landscape is quite spectacular.
After lunch at a restaurant carved right out of the rock, we toured Gerome Open Air Museum, a World Heritage Site preserving an ancient monastery dotted with monk's cells, kitchens, storerooms and numerous chapels. The earliest art we saw involved painting directly on the cave walls, principally using a red pigment and various Christian symbols. Later plaster coated the walls and frescos appeared. We ducked in to view chapel after chapel, marveling at the artistic skills of the eleventh century monks.
Our final stop took us into an "underground city" which could house up to 30,000 for an extended period whenever an emergency arose or attacking forces threatened. We literally descended deep into the rocky labyrinth, sometimes bent nearly double to squeeze through narrow tunnels into larger rooms beyond. We must have gone down at least four to six levels underground!
The crowds have been fewer here than in Istanbul. The variety of cultures represented, however, is remarkable: German, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Egyptian, Turkish ... Most of the time, only by overhearing a conversation, however, is one able to distinguish one ethnicity or culture from another - quite fascinating!
Our bus met the plane at the airport, and off we drove into Cappadocia ("Land of Wonderful Horses"). We'll be here in the area, staying at the beautiful Uchisar Kaya Hotel, for the next three nights. During the course of our first day, we stopped at three different spots. The first provided a general overview of the unusual geological formations that predominate hereabouts.
After lunch at a restaurant carved right out of the rock, we toured Gerome Open Air Museum, a World Heritage Site preserving an ancient monastery dotted with monk's cells, kitchens, storerooms and numerous chapels. The earliest art we saw involved painting directly on the cave walls, principally using a red pigment and various Christian symbols. Later plaster coated the walls and frescos appeared. We ducked in to view chapel after chapel, marveling at the artistic skills of the eleventh century monks.
The crowds have been fewer here than in Istanbul. The variety of cultures represented, however, is remarkable: German, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Egyptian, Turkish ... Most of the time, only by overhearing a conversation, however, is one able to distinguish one ethnicity or culture from another - quite fascinating!
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