Hey folks. For those of you who have no idea where/what Cappadocia is, you need to Google it. It's a region of central Turkey, the Asian part that is called Anatolia (incidentally, 3% of Turkey is in Europe, that's the part known as Thrace, even in Roman times; 97% is in Asia, and it's Anatolia). Anyway, heading a few hundred kms SSW of Ankara, Cappadocia begins roughly near the dormant volcano Mt. Hasan, which exploded in...uh, can't remember, sometime in the Bronze Age (1150 B.C.?) and was home to the Hittite empire. Mt. Hasan is the subject of the first recorded landscape painting on a wall in Catal Huyuk, the first settled society. Think 6000 B.C. One of our professors says evidence has recently come to light that Catal Huyuk (Cha-tal Hew-yewk) was actually inhabited as far back as 9000 B.C. ("All the history books will have to be changed.") The land becomes browner, dryer, and more topographically interesting as you head SW. We stopped at a salt lake that was only 5" deep all the way across (it covers over 1000 sq. km., but we only saw the head of the lake). My feet, newly exfoliated at the Ankara pedicure, were unprotected from the salt pebbles and shards. Ouch, ouch, ouch. I can safely say that Turkey has now heard all my profanity. Anyway, the lake is 30% salt, that's pretty high salinity. So nothing lives in it but a type of bacteria that turns the water (and the surrounding sand, depending on the light) soft to bright pink. It was lovely.
The true draw of Cappadocia, however, is the rock formations. Much like the American SW and W, central Turkey has landscapes of great drama. I don't retain all of the geological info we receive (my head is so full, you wouldn't believe it), but it has to do with volcanic ash and basalt. And probably some other stuff. Erosion, wind, etc. And we're left with "fairy chimneys". And lots and lots of cave homes. Plus underground cities, some as deep as 7 levels (or 8, depending on who you ask) going down about 140 feet. Early Christians, we're talking 3rd and 4th centuries, used to live here and hide from the marauders (Romans, then Arabian peninsula Muslims, then...well, I can't remember.) So interesting, so ingenius in many respects. Just great.
Last night was our Turkish cultural festival. Tour groups pay $35/head and watch dancers represent different regions/eras of Turkish and Ottoman history. Very cool. We drank local wines and raki (pronounced rah-kuh), an anisette "brandy" that you mix with water. Yum. We danced like crazy people and had a great time. Tonight after all our Goreme (pronounced ger-rem-ay) hiking, we went to a Dervish ceremony--so...totally...cool. I was afraid watching all that whirling would make me feel queasy, especially since my tummy and I are still not on full-out speaking terms. But no. It reminded me of going to the symphony in Moscow: it's atmospheric. The lights were low, the music and singing were wonderful, and the dervishes were elegant and inspiring. I didn't have my camera, so I'll have to get pics from a colleague. The Turkish instrument kanun is fantastic. It's a many-stringed instrument in a box that you hold on your lap. It's beautiful and evocative. I love that sound.
We went to a famous carpet maker/seller today too. They make the famous Ciran (chi-rahn) carpets that have won the Architectural Digest World Carpet competitions 3 years in a row. You should totally check them out on line. My pictures do not do them justice. They showed us the Ottoman weaving style of Hareke, another cool technique/product to check out on line. These carpets were so beautiful, I had an acute case of Rich People Envy. Dreadful. The pictures I took are to show my husband how much money I didn't spend. My favorite was almost $20K, but they were at $17K before I left. I wonder how low they would've gone. It was huge and beautiful. Sigh.
Tomorrow we have our balloon ride, and with it a 4:15 wake-up call. I will post pictures here, but if you want to see more, go to my Facebook page where I'm loading up albums.
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