Cappadocia (Day 6)

Once, Cappadocia was in the middle of volcanic region. Over many millions of years, volcanoes, wind, rain and ice sculptured erosion form up to be nowadays what we can see in Cappadocia. The local people called these unique rock formation as “fairy chimney”. Ancient man carved the rocks and built houses, church and also underground city.

Kaymakli Underground City
There are about 40 underground cities in Cappadocia. The widest one is Kaymakli underground city, while the deepest is Derinkuyu Underground City.
Kaymakli (Enegup in Greek) people built their homes around the underground city tunnels for security reason. Kaymakli Underground City has 8 storey and able to accommodate 5000 peoples to live in it, 4 storey is open yet. The deepest point of the visit is below 20 meters. There are rooms and halls connecting to each other with narrow corridor, wine tanks, water cistern, kitchen and food stores, ventilation chimneys, water wells, churches and large lock stones for any danger from out. Ancient people are so smart.





We would definitely lost if we passing through the weird chambers and down sloping tunnels without any sign, just like we are in the labyrinth. And we have to tell each other ‘watch your head” when we ducked into some of the cave. A red arrow sign shows the way farther down and a blue arrows show exit.

Pigeon Valley
Pigeon Valley which named for the thousands of pigeon houses carved into the rock.





Other Photos:









Goreme Open Air Museum
There are more than 10 cave churches in the Göreme Open Air Museum with beautiful frescoes (wall paitings) whose colors still retain all their original freshness. All the churches in Goreme Open Air Museum belong to the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries. We did not visit the entire cave churches. Maybe I am not a Christian, that why I couldn’t figure and understand the figure on those frescoes, I only know Jesus, haha! However, I tried to understand the character and history through tour guide’s explanation.