TRAVEL: Cappadocia

Framed by the Taurus mountains to the south, the high plateau of Cappadocia lies in central Turkey, a land bristling with volcanic features, known as ‘fairy chimneys’, and carved with ancient underground cities and rock churches.

For early Christians and others who farmed the surrounding land, living underground was safe, cool in summer, warm in winter and whenever you needed extra space, you could just dig another room in the relatively soft stone. Stables were near the top, accessed down a ramp, while further down was a network of communal kitchens, sleeping quarters, stores, niches for oil lamps, wine cellars and chapels. The cities ran seven floors deep, often more, with air shafts, wells and millstones (complete with peepholes) which could block the tunnels in time of danger.

Many such cities remain undiscovered but 36 have been identified, a few partially opened to visitors who file through narrow passageways, stooping right down at times with the occasional moment of panic but rarely a chance to turn back. The largest city is Kaymakli, the deepest Derinkuyu. Both are on the tourist trail.

Meanwhile above ground, nature has shaped the most fantastic fairyland, eroding the soft tufa layer left by eruptions to uncover tall columns of hard rock marching through the countryside like a giant army. Some, capped with basalt, look like overgrown mushrooms, others come to a point like pixies’ hats, many are pierced with the dark holes of troglodyte dwellings. Large or small, these so-called fairy chimneys come in twos or threes, or family-sized groups, while here and there sculpted ridges cling to curving slopes the colour of cappuccino.
 
At over 1000 metres, the little town of Ürgüp is a convenient place to stay, with its share of fairy chimneys, its rock-hewn houses turned into cave hotels and on the doorstep, a whole flotilla of hot air balloons offering the ride of a lifetime. Every morning, they rise above Red Valley, packed with wide-eyed tourists, gliding high above it all or dipping down for a close-up view. Back on land, the astonishing moonscape stretches as far as you can see, Pigeon Valley, Hunters Valley, Uchisar, and when you reach the best viewpoints, cameras clicking all around, you almost forget to browse the souvenir stalls brimming with pottery, turquoise and pashmina.

But there is more to this land than caves and fairy chimneys. Not so far away among the vineyards, the Göreme Open Air Museum preserves some of Cappadocia’s finest rock-cut monasteries and churches, dating back to the early days of Christianity. Footpaths and steps lead you from one chapel to the next where wall paintings and frescoes in earthy tones depict scenes from the New Testament, or St Theodore and St George slaying the dragon. Most decorations are from the 11th to 13th centuries but there are earlier examples.

Stunning...

Carved into rock or cliff, every chapel has a story to tell. Sandals is named after mysterious footprints, the Dark Church was a pigeon house, and you find a Snake Church, home of the dragon, an Apple Church, once near an orchard, Santa Barbara, where red lines were drawn on the vault to imitate brick, and the beautifully restored Tokali, with gleaming lapis lazuli in its newer section. At the entrance to the complex, the Nunnery rises on several floors, church and cells cut into the towering rock and just like in the underground cities, connected by tunnels with millstone doors. Cappadocia is indeed like nowhere else in Turkey, equally stunning above and underground.
Solange Hando

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