The Weather in Cappadocia

Today we moved on from Göreme.

This morning the Clingon asked about the strange noise outside. I'd recognised it: rain. Something I didn't imagine we'd encounter in this high, rocky, dusty country. We've been lucky with the weather, so far, though the Clingon says snow is predicted tomorrow where we are now: Avanos.

We flew over the landscape in a balloon on our first morning in Göreme. The balloons haven't been up since due to winds, and now, rain.




Wednesday morning we hopped into a minibus provided by the Flintstones Tour Company, and went off for the day with 12 fellow travellers from China, Korea, Spain, Italy, and our guide Selim. After a quick shifti at the panorama of Goreme, we went to Derinkuyu underground city, where the Hittites/Phrygians hid out from their enemies between the 15th and 12th centuries BCE. Four underground floors in this city, and stables, kitchens, but bathrooms consisted of clay pots.




Hundreds of underground cities in Cappadocia with tunnels linking many of them. A 14 km tunnel from Derinkuyu to the next city.

A wander around the Selime Monastery. Had a lunch of river trout beside the river and then a short hike up the Ihlara canyon, the second longest canyon in the world, according to Selim, our guide. It's a Unesco World Heritage Site. We stopped at a church carved into the rock with extant paintings of Jesus and various saintly types, all of which were achieved with natural pigments: the white is pigeon poo, of which the ancients had an abundant supply. You can still see the pigeon houses carved into the rocks.

The Romans really hated the early Christians and chased them down, and then the Crusaders invaded to finish the job. Here I was thinking that the Crusaders invaded to flatten Islam, but no, they were just as anti the Orthodox Christians.

After the hike, we were whisked off to place where they tried to flog us onyx and Zultanite, a newly discovered gem that changes into 5 different colours in different lights (though they only managed to demonstrate two colours). The next day--for the Clingon and I signed on for a different tour with the same company the next day, dear readers--they tried to flog us pottery and carpets, which took up more of our time. So, not so many photos on that day. I'm all for seeing the way they harvest the silk from silkworm cocoons, that was interesting. As was the information about the different carpets, but it went on too long for me, especially as I don't travel to shop. I'm still recovering from the hard sell.




This morning our lovely hotel owner drove us here to Avanos, where my Googling back in Sydney had told me there was a market.




We visited the market--quite small and not particularly colourful, but worth a run through, I thought. The Clingon was not of the same opinion, I think, and remains singularly unimpressed with Avanos.

After the market, I dragged my reluctant fellow traveller to visit the old part of town, where I walked gingerly around the ruins, shooting the dilapidated houses of the Greeks who were forced out in what the locals refer to politely as "the population exchange" of the 1920's.




These abandoned houses, the falling walls and roofs, were exciting for me to shoot, but also, the sight was sad. Imagine the reluctant exhangees. To this day, nothing has been done about those decaying houses. Couldn't read the signs I saw around, so I don't know whether anything is planned for them, but I hope not. They are a poignant reminder of a history of tears.


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