Cappadocia

Göreme is a favorite tourist town in Cappadocia, the region of the world that produced some of Christianity's best writers and thinkers, notably Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory Nazianzus. Now it is best known for its "fairy chimneys" and painted churches. Fairy chimneys are hollowed-out rock cones that now often contain hotel rooms. I'm not sure what is fairylike (or chimney-like) about them, but they are wondrous to behold.



There is an open-air museum a short walk from the town that contains numerous impressive churches, painted with varying levels of artistic skill. Some are walls are smeared with childlike drawings, while others, like the Dark Church, feature some of the most impressive paintings I have ever seen. Photos are forbidden, but given that I know better than to use flash and that I paid multiple huge admission fees to see all of this stuff, I decided to take some anyway. Here is a church that, while charming, seems to have been decorated with a red crayon:



And here is a wild photo from the Dark Church, which is so named because it has only one window that lets in little light. This is actually a great thing because the low lighting has allowed the brightness of the paintings to be preserved. Tragically, many of the wall paintings in this region, especially faces, are damaged because an iconoclastic movement decided that images of humans and animals should be forbidden. The iconoclasts then proceeded to ruin everybody else's fun. Fortunately the Dark Church is lookin' good.



Today, we started out with a trip to Kaymakli, one of Cappadocia's many underground cities (though only a few are open to the public). They are exactly what they sound like—tunnels in the earth that lead to rooms inhabited by various people at various time periods. The cities are most closely associated with Christians on the run from hostile invaders, but are mentioned in much earlier sources. Some of the tunnels were miserably cramped and tight, and while I could fit through them I felt and heard my backpack scraping against the moist ceiling. I hit my head more than four times today because nobody was considerate enough to build for someone of my height! Dan had an even harder time of it because he is a giant even by today's standards.



The tunnels were also packed with tour groups, complete with crappy guides who pressed us to pay them for a tour, threatening that we would otherwise remain painfully uninformed forever. There were, however, plenty of side rooms to explore without too much interruption. It was fun to be in a moist, cool place and away from the sun for a while, but I would definitely rather live above ground!



After the underground city, we climbed up to the top of a nearby "castle," which wasn't much of a castle but provided some great views. Then we decided to walk home through one of the valleys leading back to Göreme and equipped with a well-trodden dirt path. Most of the valleys here are popular destinations for hikers and tourists on horseback. Göreme is a haven for ranchers and companies offering rides in hot air balloons. I would love to try a balloon ride, but at 110 Euros for an hour they are a bit beyond my budget! The entire landscape is dotted with deep gorges topped by caps of less-eroded rock, creating a peculiarly phallic effect.



Unfortunately for us, the way back to town was not clear in this particular valley. We were about to get stuck when a helpful local man discovered us and led the way to the correct route, which was steep, slippery, and not clear at all. Of course, once he had led us to safety he concocted a story about needing a huge amount of money to travel to Istanbul for his twins' birth, but we didn't give him nearly what he asked. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, but I spent a good amount of the time too stressed out to enjoy it. If I am ever in the mood to do this again (a big if), I will definitely insist on a better-trodden route.



Tomorrow will be a travel day, and the bulk of it will be spent on a long bus ride to Silifke (formerly Seleucia), which is home to yet another St. Thecla shrine. I'm excited!