I get a people asking me if they only had a short trip to Turkey, which region other than Istanbul they should visit?. Cappadocia region has to be the one. In Cappadocia, there are plenty of interesting places to visit – Goreme and the underground city of Kaymakli.

Goreme

Goreme is a unique region of volcanic landscapes and ro-hewn churches decorated with ancient wall paintings. As I entered the open air museum, I saw lots of awesome formations. Goreme was listed as the world heritage site by UNESCO in 1985.

Other than the unique fairy chimney city, what’s worth exploring further are the churches inside those caves. The practise of Christianity seems to be practiced in the past in an ‘underground’ manner. As I entered the churches, there were many evidences of Christianity shown in the wall paintings.

I spent a good amount of time exploring the open air museum and enjoying the view and soaking up the ‘fairy tale land’ atmosphere.

I continued driving around Goreme (outside the open air museum) to the Zelve Valley where the scenery is dotted with Churches, Caves and Trogodyte dwellings. Nearby, there’s a line of souvenir shops, I saw Turkey’s version of Three Sisters – similar to the three sisters in the Blue Mountains (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia).

Kaymakli – Underground city

I had a local tour guide (he was very fit considering he was 60 years old!) take us on an underground city tour of Kaymakli. The main attraction here is to see the cone of Uchisar. I would not recommend you to explore the underground city if you’re claustrophobic or on the little big side. The tour requires you to duck, crawl and squeezing into small confined spaces.

In the underground city, I was most impressed with the engineering and construction of the city. There are a lot of complexities for the city to accommodate living quarter for people and their animals, especially the way they built the air ventilation to keep the air fresh and the robustness of the city to prevent it from collapsing. I guess it’s like ants building their nest which consist of compartments either on top of each other or side by side.

In the underground city, it was a way for the people to protect themselves against enemy attack and the weather. There is only one way which is blocked by a massive boulder stone which can only be opened and closed from the inside.

I really had a great time travelling in Goreme, Cappadocia. I realised 2500 people actually lived in either the underground city or inside the volcanic rock formation. I thought it was a really cool way of life .

Related posts:

1. Turkey – City of Troy and Pergamon (Canakkale)
2. Turkey Trip – a whole summary (details to come..)
3. Turkey – Ephesus (Kusadasi)
4. Turkey – Istanbul (Bosphorus Cruise)
5. Turkey – Cotton Castle, Hierapolis (Pamukkale)