Cappadocia was one of our favourite places in Turkey - stunning landscapes, cute villages, fantastic food and people, and loads of history. We stayed in a cave room (literally a cave carved into rock!) in the magical little village of Goreme. Unfortunately the weather was unseasonally cold and wet, but despite this we still managed to cram a lot into our 4 days here. Our highlights were:
- Hot Air Ballooning! We enjoyed an early morning balloon ride where we floated over the fairy chimneys (conical shaped pinnacles up to 40m high formed by the erosion of volcanic ash) and got a bird's eye view of Cappodocia's incredible landscape.
- Hiking through the spectacular Rose, Love + Pigeon Valleys. These valleys surrounding Goreme are filled with gorgeous scenery and amazing rock formations (some are ancient houses and rock-cut churches).
- Visiting the Gorem Open-Air Museum which houses a number of rock-cut Byzantine churches, chapels and monasteries, some with beautiful frescoes.
- Hiring a little scooter for a day and driving 1.5 hours to the Ihlara Valley. We underestimated the driving distance and by the time we realised how far it actually was we were already halfway there, so we continued on in the freezing wind and with bugs flying into our faces! Once we (finally!) arrived we hiked for a couple of hours through this picturesque valley which has dozens of churches carved into its rocky walls.
- Visiting the underground city at Kaymakli, where it was fascinating (and a little claustrophobic!) to crawl through the maze of tunnels and rooms carved 8 levels deep into the earth! Kaymakli is one of a large number of underground cities in the Cappadocia region that were used thousands of years ago by people of the region to hide from invaders. Today there is still plenty of evidence of their underground lifestyle: storage jars for oil, wine and water, troughs for pressing grapes, communal kitchens with smoke blackened walls, and very deep wells.
- Hot Air Ballooning! We enjoyed an early morning balloon ride where we floated over the fairy chimneys (conical shaped pinnacles up to 40m high formed by the erosion of volcanic ash) and got a bird's eye view of Cappodocia's incredible landscape.
- Hiking through the spectacular Rose, Love + Pigeon Valleys. These valleys surrounding Goreme are filled with gorgeous scenery and amazing rock formations (some are ancient houses and rock-cut churches).
- Visiting the Gorem Open-Air Museum which houses a number of rock-cut Byzantine churches, chapels and monasteries, some with beautiful frescoes.
- Hiring a little scooter for a day and driving 1.5 hours to the Ihlara Valley. We underestimated the driving distance and by the time we realised how far it actually was we were already halfway there, so we continued on in the freezing wind and with bugs flying into our faces! Once we (finally!) arrived we hiked for a couple of hours through this picturesque valley which has dozens of churches carved into its rocky walls.
- Visiting the underground city at Kaymakli, where it was fascinating (and a little claustrophobic!) to crawl through the maze of tunnels and rooms carved 8 levels deep into the earth! Kaymakli is one of a large number of underground cities in the Cappadocia region that were used thousands of years ago by people of the region to hide from invaders. Today there is still plenty of evidence of their underground lifestyle: storage jars for oil, wine and water, troughs for pressing grapes, communal kitchens with smoke blackened walls, and very deep wells.
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