Cappadocia is one of the top 10 IT places to visit in the world. At least according to what I had read. Obviously, when I learned my close friends Josh & Anca live just 250 kms away from Cappadocia, it only made sense that Pallavi and I pay this town a visit. Cappadocia is famous for it's "fairy chimneys," formed by some volcano that erupted 10,000 years ago. It has hit the tourist trail primarily as a hot air balloon destination.
We arrived completely unprepared for the weather. Believe it or not, a flight here cost us less than a bus ticket would. We stepped off of the plane from Istanbul at night and couldn't see what we can see now - that mountains surround this area on all sides.
We stayed in a town called Goreme. What we didn't know prior to visiting turkey is that Cappadocia was a refuge for the Byzantine Christian population. They lived here from about 300 AD until 1400 AD or so. They used the fairy chimneys and various vertical volcanic rock structures as hideouts from persecutors. Apparently, there was some sort of Lord of the Rings-like signal system that ran from Jerusalem to this region to alert the Christians that the persecutors were coming. They built entire monasteries and cities completely underground to help protect themselves.
We went to one particular monastery that is part of one of an open air museum. It is a series of complexes carved into the rock. I figured it would be like the cave dwellings found in Bandelier National Park in New Mexico. In some ways, it was exactly like that. You'd find random doors and windows carved into the rock face. However, nobody told us about the gorgeous, amazingly preserved Byzantine art found inside each of these various rock chapels. It is stunning. The colors are more brilliant and amazing than almost any 'outdoor' paintings I've seen. Obviously, these aren't nearly as old as the Pyramids or Pompeii; however, they are gorgeous. I've never seen anything like them. Unfortunately, their eyes are gouged out. We aren't completely sure what happened in history that caused people to mark out their eyes; however, it still didn't mar their beauty.
We explored the entire museum in awe and then booked our hot air balloon the next day. In a tragic turn of events, I quickly realized that it was going to be -8 degrees C up in the air. We decided to bite the bullet, despite the cold, but I made the decision that I needed gloves! Fortunately, some Turkish nana who ran a tea shop also happened to be knitting gloves. If only I had my Grandy, she could have made me some gloves as well. It didn't matter. This nana could solve my problem.
We called it an early evening. Hot air balloons await!
We arrived completely unprepared for the weather. Believe it or not, a flight here cost us less than a bus ticket would. We stepped off of the plane from Istanbul at night and couldn't see what we can see now - that mountains surround this area on all sides.
We stayed in a town called Goreme. What we didn't know prior to visiting turkey is that Cappadocia was a refuge for the Byzantine Christian population. They lived here from about 300 AD until 1400 AD or so. They used the fairy chimneys and various vertical volcanic rock structures as hideouts from persecutors. Apparently, there was some sort of Lord of the Rings-like signal system that ran from Jerusalem to this region to alert the Christians that the persecutors were coming. They built entire monasteries and cities completely underground to help protect themselves.
We went to one particular monastery that is part of one of an open air museum. It is a series of complexes carved into the rock. I figured it would be like the cave dwellings found in Bandelier National Park in New Mexico. In some ways, it was exactly like that. You'd find random doors and windows carved into the rock face. However, nobody told us about the gorgeous, amazingly preserved Byzantine art found inside each of these various rock chapels. It is stunning. The colors are more brilliant and amazing than almost any 'outdoor' paintings I've seen. Obviously, these aren't nearly as old as the Pyramids or Pompeii; however, they are gorgeous. I've never seen anything like them. Unfortunately, their eyes are gouged out. We aren't completely sure what happened in history that caused people to mark out their eyes; however, it still didn't mar their beauty.
We explored the entire museum in awe and then booked our hot air balloon the next day. In a tragic turn of events, I quickly realized that it was going to be -8 degrees C up in the air. We decided to bite the bullet, despite the cold, but I made the decision that I needed gloves! Fortunately, some Turkish nana who ran a tea shop also happened to be knitting gloves. If only I had my Grandy, she could have made me some gloves as well. It didn't matter. This nana could solve my problem.
We called it an early evening. Hot air balloons await!
No comments:
Post a Comment