cappadocia

ben, margot & i spent a fun weekend in cappadocia. the weather was perfect, and after a 3.5 hour drive we found ourselves in an entirely new land with incredible views of ancient ruins, cave hotels and homes, and 'fairy chimneys' everywhere you look. exploring the sites was fun, but i think it was really each other's company that we all enjoyed the most!

en-route, we decided to stop for a picture in front of the 'big mountain' in the distance. turned out, this mountain (mt. erciyes, a former volcano which formed the fairy chimneys of cappadocia) was in view the entire time we were in cappadocia.

inside our beautiful room at elkep evi, a cave hotel
a small glimpse of the elkep evi exterior- much more enormous than this lets on
after checking into our hotel & grabbing sandwiches for lunch, we hit the road to see as much as we could. we first came across these fairy chimneys. the tourists fit right in with them, no?!
a camel-shaped chimney

margot & i climbed into this cave and were enjoying it, right up until it occurred to us that it could potentially 'cave in' on us... then we got scared:
truly awesome sites
a better view of mt. erciyes in the distance
these ancient villages built into the hillsides were everywhere, and unfortunately, not terribly well preserved
ben & i in front of 'pigeon valley.' we're still not sure how the valley got it's name, except that there were a few unimpressive pigeons flying about.
'sunset valley' had some gorgeous views...

...and a pretty nice sunset, too
we ate dinner at a very cozy place called 'ziggy's,' and our hotel set us up with a great table in front of the fire! perfect for warming up after the temperature dropped with the sunset.
the next morning we enjoyed the hotel breakfast, served with a spectacular view of cappadocia
after breakfast we headed out to kaymakli, an ancient underground city (the largest of 10 discovered so-far in turkey) built by the hittites in 2000 bc. we paid a very sweet older gentleman 10 lira a piece for a tour of the city, which is 8 stories deep (5 stories have been exposed).

poor margot was clearly much taller than the hittites who these tiny winding tunnels were built for
after, we headed to the 'open air museum' to see more ancient caves.

this ancient cave village had several churches, each a bit larger and more ornate as you climb the hill, until you reach the 'dark church' at the top. here is one of the many scenes on the ceiling of the dark church, dating back to the 12th or 13th century.
view from the dark church
this was our last stop, as we needed to head home while the sun was still shining. now we will spend a couple of days in ankara before heading out for our next adventure: istanbul! stay tuned...