Göreme (aka Cappadocia, or "the land of beautiful horses")

So ever since we left on this trip, and have been chatting with fellow backpackers, when we mentioned Turkey, everyone  said, ohh, are you going to Cappadocia?  To which we replied, never heard of it. Maybe you have, or maybe you haven't,  but since people kept insisting  we go, and since we're in Turkey for 3 weeks or so, we decided to take the 10 hour overnight bus into central Turkey, to the land of beautiful horses.

Look how happy Jim is to be watching the sun rise in Göreme after our 10 hour overnight bus. Really, it's just that our bus got in at 5am, and though the hostel said it's doors would be open, they weren't,  so we had to kill a few wee morning hours before we could check in and take a pretty solid nap. Luckily we met a kind travel agent who treated us to tea, a map, and the note on where to catch the pretty, but cloudy sunrise.

Red rose valley after sunrise

The Göreme Open air museum. This region, Cappadocia,  is known for its unique landscape,  in that about 2 billion years ago, it was under the ocean, then 3 volcanoes  errupted, and the land got pushed above sea level. The millenia of sand, wind, and rain, have eroded the soft volcanic ash, leaving odd pillars and mounds of basalt and stone. In addition, early peoples, the Hittites,  carved caves into these formations, for storage of fruit  and vegetables during the winter.

Later, as early Christians were escaping  persecution  by the Romans, they moved into these cave dwellings as permanent shelter. As such, whole civilizations emerged, including  of course, chapels for worship. Here you can see a cave chapel fresco.

Odd pillar formations in Pigeon Valley 

We all know what this looks like....

Looking down on Göreme  from  the panorama view point

Derinkyu  underground city: More cave dwelling remnants  from escaping Christians.  Instead of being built  into the side of a strange rock formations, this civilization is completely underground, up to 8 stories deep. 35 civilizations like this have been found in the area. 1000 people could live down here for up to 7 months.

The Selime monastery.  The prevailing rumor around these parts is that this is the landscape that inspired George Lucas to create Tatooine. There's not really anything to back up that theory, but they do look similar, and I'm  sure it helps them sell alot of tours.

Selime  selfie 

Ohh, we also got really good at playing cave cribbage:

 Here we are becoming a living part of the Göreme  Open air museum,  much to the delight of several British tourists who actually knew what we were playing

Here in the cave common room of our hostel. Much more comfortable with  carpets and pillows.