Cappadocia Fairy Chimneys

After the unsuccessful attempt to go on our balloon ride we took off in our little group comprised of tourists from all over the world to visit the underground city of Ozkonak. The Turkish drivers tend to prefer to stay in the middle of the road to avoid rough edges of the road, leading to interesting meetings at blind corners. They also conduct very loud nineteen to the dozen conversations on the cellphone whilst careering all over the road. Denise has her foot on her imaginary brake most of the time! One guide even read up on our itinerary while driving. Anyway, this underground city was amazing. It had ten floors of rooms including cooking, sleeping, all kinds of rooms with ventilation shafts above and water wells below which could hold up to 10,000 people. Very little open to the public. We had for lunch a local stew cooked in a crockpot.

 Fairy Chimneys Cappadocia

Undergound city, Rolling stone to block entrance way to invaders. Arrow indicates where to stand to be flattened. Diet in one easy step.

This is another area where the early Christians built houses into the soft rock well away from the Romans and anyone else that decided they needed persecuting. The Persians from 1450 or so decided that pigeons were more important and should be kept in these areas so the people moved out. Interestingly there are no pigeons there now because the Govt decided because of the Bird Flu they should all be slaughtered!

Rose Valley and  Early Christian Church in the Valley. Roman era 

Early human settlements in Goreme.Back half of rock has fallen away. Originally maybe thousands of years BC

After Rose Valley ( named for reddish tinge on rocks) we walked out to Goreme, passed Greek and earlier cave settlements dug into the soft rock as above. Back for an early night as now officially stuffed from the early start.