Cappadocia
As we left Hattusas, we entered the Cappadocia region of Turkey, which is
famous for its geology, as well as for the handicrafts that are produced
there. Our first stop was in the Peribacalar Vadisi to see the "Fairy
Chimneys" shown here. All throughout this region, the soft tufa
rock has been eroded away to leave numerous pillars. It reminded me a lot
of Bryce Canyon in Utah.
As impressive as these structures are, what makes them even more remarkable
is that, until quite recently, the local people have made their homes
inside the surrounding caves and cliffs. This is the town of Zelve, which
was inhabited right up until the 1950s, but was then evacuated by the
government due to concern about the instability of the area. Today, the
tourists are free to clamber all over, and explore the numerous rooms hollowed
out of the rock. Perhaps most impressive are the large caverns which served as
churches. The rows of holes in the cliff face shown here were used to house
pigeons.
That night we settled into the Green Motel, one of the many family-owned
businesses that Meli uses for her tours. Some in our group got to stay in
"rock rooms", which had been carved out of the surrounding rock. The
colourful but subdued lighting on the local landscape made for an
interesting stage against which to spend another night viewing the
Perseids, or sampling the delights of the northern sky through Noel's
8" telescope, which he had dutifully lugged all the way from New Zealand.
Friday 13 August
Today indeed proved to be "Black Friday" for our driver Metin, as just outside
of Nevsehir, he was pulled over by the local police, and asked to print out
his tachograph (speed recorder) readings for the past 24 hours. A short while
later, the police returned and claimed that at some point he had exceeded
the 90 km/hr speed limit, and was given an on-the-spot fine. A similar thing
had happened to Aran, our guide in Gallipoli, and yet both were extremely
careful drivers by Turkish standards. I suspect the police were just looking
for some easy revenue.
We were on our way to the underground city at Kaymakli. This, and several
other underground cities in the regions were once the temporary retreat of
the Christian tribes as they sought to escape persecution. This one went
down 7 levels, each of which could be blocked off by a large stone wheel.
Through an extensive maze of passages, rooms, and alcoves we crawled,
which was especially hard on those less vertically-challenged, like Bill
Allen. The clever use of vertical ventilation shafts kept things nice and
cool, and not stuffy at all. Dave purchased a French newspaper, from which
we were able to glean that Cornwall and Germany had been cloudy, but that
Turkey and Iran were in the clear for the eclipse. After lunch we went to
the Goreme Open Air Museum, where we again got to explore more houses and
churches carved from the rock, which at least afforded some relief from the
hot sun.
In the town of Avanos, we were taken to a government-sponsored carpet weaving
cooperative, where the local women are encouraged to hand down the skills of
weaving carpets to the next generation. We were given demonstrations of
silk spinning, wool dying, and the weaving process itself. Some carpets can
take 3 years or more to complete, depending on the size and the number
of knots per square inch, which basically sets the price of the carpet.
While women do most of the work in creating the carpet, men do the selling.
After our tour, we were given the opportunity to purchase one of these
magnificent carpets. This basically involved watching as several men rolled
out a
dazzling array of carpets, picking one you liked, then haggling with one
of the salesmen on price. One member of our group played it cool, and managed
to beat them down from $1200 to $650. I was able to resist the sales pitch,
but did go home with two carpets for $4 - each about 4 inches square on a
greeting card.
Having been on the road now for 10 days now, laundry was now becoming a
top priority. Meltem arranged for the motel staff to do our laundry
during the day for a nominal sum in a communal wash and dry. As Joyce
Ashe demonstrates, this resulted in some intense searching as we each
attempted to sort our undies from everyone else's. I think we all ended
up with the same number of items we started off with, but the colours and
sizes may well have been different...
Saturday 14 August
The day began with an early morning hike up to the cliff dwellings near our
motel, for those who hadn't stayed up too late watching the skies. But it
seemed we didn't have the place all to ourselves - two hot air balloons
drifted overhead in the morning calm, and even took turns descending
into the valley for a closer look. We could almost reach out and shake hands
with the occupants of one gondola.
It was back to Avanos this morning for another craft demonstration, this
time from the master potter Galip. Sitting astride his kick-wheel, he
started by forming the lid of a teapot, which he then lay to one side.
He then formed the rest of the teapot from the remaining clay, and much
to our amazement, ended by dropping the lid onto the teapot - a perfect fit!
His studio consists of a series of caves, which house a fantastic collection
of plates, pots, and ornaments, all at very reasonable prices. I finally
relented, and purchased a plate painted with the traditional "Tree of Life"
motif.
It seems that "Master Craftsman" is not Galip's only claim to fame.
He is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for having
the world's largest collection of women's hair. Female visitors are asked
to leave a hair sample along with a card containing their name, address,
and phone number. Once a year, Galip picks 10 at random, and invites each
of them to Turkey for an all-expenses paid 10 day tour of Turkey (provided
they make their own way there). It all seemed a bit weird and creepy to me.
After lunch we headed for the village of Bellisirma in one of the poorest
regions of central Turkey. Here we made an unannounced visit on a local
family, and despite the fact that the women of the house were just about
to go into the village for a wedding celebration, they insisted we come
inside for tea. Imagine if you had 28 strangers passing through, would
you invite them into your home for tea? (and would you have enough cups
for everybody?). Such is the Turkish way.
Late in the day, we arrived at our hotel in Guzelyurt, which was actually
a former monastery. Owing to a booking snafu, we ended up having to share
4 per room, which was no big deal, as the attic rooms were plenty big enough,
if a little lacking in headroom. Most important, the hotel had a pool,
and although getting in to the unheated water was a bit heart-stopping,
it was great once you were in. Dinner was served buffet-style in the grand
dining hall, and offered some of the best food we had anywhere. Sleep that
night was a little hard to come by, thanks to the snore wars going on around
me.