Sail the Dream: An Anatolian Adventure

The foundation to the natural wonder of Cappadocia was laid some 30 million years ago when a series of now extinct volcanoes, the largest of which is Mount Erciyes, erupted spewing lava and volcanic ash over the region which, as it solidified, turned into a soft stone of pastel shades of red, green and yellow.

Tuff as it is known is easily eroded by the elements and over the millenia the wind and rain have formed slender rock pinnacles known as 'fairy chimneys' which contribute to a unique eerie, yet magnificent, landscape that could be from a world other than Earth. Some of these 'chimneys' have the remains of the basalt lava layer perched on top of them presenting a somewhat suggestive image!

Our drive to Urgup and through the Derwent valley and back to Goreme gave us fine views of these intriguing rock formations and an exhausting climb to the top of the castle at Uchisar was rewarded by a wonderful panorama over the entire but relitively small; just 300 sq km; Cappadocia area.

Our most exhilarating view of Cappadocia was from a hot air balloon as the sun rose. The one and three quarter hour flight took us from a few feet above ground level, where we chased a fox in the undergrowth, with the skilled pilot dodging between the extraordinary rock formations to the dizzy height of 1500 feet for a birdseye view of the region.

At the gasps of the passengers; there were twelve of us on board; the pilot assured us that we were not to worry as the balloon was of British manufacture! After we landed we were given a glass of champagne and a certificate to mark our adventure and a highlight of our trip.

Man added to the work of nature from the 15th century BC Hittite era to the 11th century AD, the softness of the Tuff allowing it to be easily carved out and excavated to form subterranean cities and troglodyte villages. There are reckoned to be 200 underground cities in the region, such as that we visited at Kaymakli, comprising living quarters, kitchens, wineries, churches, stores, stables and combined ventilation shafts and wells. Each housed between 8000 and 15000 people and had as many as eight storeys below ground. Incredibly cities were linked with escape tunnels up to 10 km long.

Christians fled to Cappadocia to escape persecution as early as the 4th century and by the 9th to 11th centuries had built an estimated 3000 churches underground and into the rock faces. The Goreme Open Air museum has the greatest concentration of churches and monasteries hewn out of the rock, most of them completed from the 9th century onward.

Many have fine Byzantine frescoes depicting Biblical scenes. The Karanlik or Dark church has a fresco of Jesus Christ within its dome reputed to be a copy of a mosaic at St John's church at Ephesus with the inscription 'Dominator of the world and earth'. Some 800 years later a similar mosaic of Allah appeared with the same inscription.

Our final destination in this remarkable region was the Ilhara Valley, a gorge 10 km long by just 80 m wide. There were rock churches here but by this time we were rockchurched out so we stopped at the village of Belisirma at a resturant table straddling the clear babbling waters of the Melindiz River with a cold beer in our hands; Heaven!