Kapadokya - Caveman Style

The wind is whistling around the rocks and hills as I sit in my big comfy hammock-like chair and stare out the “window” of my cave. I think there might be a storm tonight, which could only add to the surreal experience of peering into the life of Kapadokya (Cappadocia). It’s like another planet out there with the towering rock formations littering the landscape. Hell, it’s like another planet in here too - I mean seriously, I’m sleeping in a cave.

Aside from the disappointment of finding out that I could have stayed at the Flintstones Hotel down the road in Goreme, today has been a very nice introduction to the region. Rocks, caves, churches, mountains, “fairy chimneys,” mosques, hotels, restaurants, tea houses; they all start to look the same after a while, but the peaceful atmosphere and mystical nature of this region are captivating. Early Christians took refuge in the caves and underground cities, carving out homes and churches from the volcanic rock. They had an invisible civilization, as it were, and their mark on this land is moving, unfortunately, so have the Christians. Back in the 1920s, there was a forced population swap where Christians from Kapadokya were moved to Greece and the Muslim Turks were transferred from Greece to here. It’s a tragic story of politics that changed the history of this region forever, but it has made it no less fascinating to visit.


One of the highlights of the day was stopping at a local ceramics workshop in Avanos. Deep inside yet another cave, one family has been producing and selling ceramics according to local tradition for the last 200 years. One of the potters demonstrated how they still use a kick wheel to turn the pottery. He made a perfect vase in about 3 minutes. They offered to let me try, but I didn’t want to embarrass the potter by making a something better and faster. Later, one of the guys in the shop asked me if I had seen the whirling dervishes perform yet. When I told him no, he announced that his cousin that had demonstrated the pottery-making was also a Dervish. “He spun around on that wheel so much as a child that he couldn’t stop, so now he goes every night to perform as a Dervish.”

I’m finding the rural regions of Anatolia to be much more to my liking than the bustling city of Istanbul. Cities can be a lot of fun, but I love exploring and relaxing in the more authentic locations.