Travel Journal

2002-10-26

Cappadocia

Yesterday was cloudy and slightly rainy, but we had a lovely time anyway. The morning started off with a walk through the village, accompanied by Süleyman. The steepest climb was up to Lamia's house, where she and I spoke in German about the renovations she made to the property after she bought it in 1993. It was in pretty bad shape then, but within 2 years of working on it for a month here and a month there, she was ready to take in guests. Down in the basement, we were able to see the wine-making cellar left over from the greek times.

Most of the buildings seem to be constructed of Tufa, the lightweight volcanic rock present in abundant quantities throughout the area.

After the walk, we headed to a typical valley with fairy chimneys and a house carved into the rock. I decided to stay up at the lookout point and write postcards, while most of the others hiked down into the valley. It was a beautiful environment for postcard writing, and I found myself wishing for binoculars so I could better see the numerous birds singing around me.

Next we headed to the Göreme Open Air Museum to see the cave churches. Unfortunately, tourists in earlier times chipped away at the frescoes and cave paintings to take pieces of them home as souvenirs, so only the paintings above the reach of humans are still in a state of reasonable preservation. It was interesting to see the way the cave churches were carved in the same shape as churches built more conventionally -- complete with a cross floor plan, pillars, and domed ceilings! There were also three different stages of decoration on the walls: line drawings in red, wall paintings, and frescoes. Because the early Christians in Cappadocia were living there in part to escape persecution, they didn't have a lot of contact with the outside world, so the earliest designs in red on the walls are quite unique, based on the ideas of the particular priest, monk, or local person who painted them. For example, one of the domes contained a cross in the middle, with 8 arrows pointing toward the cross. Perhaps this might be intended to symbolize the ascention of Christ into heaven, but who knows?

We had lunch in the village of Uçhisar in the three-room house of a local family, after which we got to talk with them about their lives. The opportunities for employment in the area are poor, and most seem to be related to the tourist trade. The woman of the house, Sevim, ran for mayor in the last mayoral election 4 years ago on a platform of trying to qualify more of the poorest people for federal assistance; she was the first woman ever to run for mayor in the Cappadocia region. Her husband, a retired grocery clerk, showed off his hobby- raising tumbling pigeons! He handed me a pigeon to throw up in the air, and lo and behold, it did somersaults in the air!

After lunch, we headed to a carpet-weaving demonstration at a place called "Carpedocia" (ugh). We learned about the dying process for wool, and about the process for making silk- I had no idea Turkey was the world's third-largest producer of silk! We also got to see weavers in action, and learned that it's not possible to make the fancier carpet designs in wool-on-wool because a higher degree of tension is required on the warp than could be achieved in wool. At the end of the demonstration we were shown examples of the various types of carpets, including the astonishing silk-on-silk Hereke carpets. We then had the opportunity to buy carpets, and John and I wound up getting a couple of simple kilims. :-)

Dinner was back at Greek House, and was followed by folk music and dancing- which we were expected to participate in! I wound up dancing twice, but escaped reasonably quickly both times. The musicians were local people who are friends of Süleyman -- one who played a lute-like instrument is a taxi driver, while the dancer who also played the drums, spoons, and finger cymbals is retired from being a guest-worker in Germany, and various members of Süleyman's family filled in on the tambourine and drums."

Mustafa Pasha

Cappadocia

Göreme Open Air Museum

Uçhisar

Carpet Demonstration

Mustafa Pasha

Another day in Cappadocia

Our next stop was a pottery demonstration in the town of Avanos, where the master potter demonstrated making a plate over a mold with an electric wheel, as well as both a wine jug and a teapot on an old-fashioned kick wheel. Apparently, they only started using motorized potter's wheels in the 1970's in this workshop. We then got to see how the designs are applied to the pottery before it is fired -- there was one woman working on a plate in the family's traditional pattern; she can apparently only work 4 hours a day because of eyestrain. The family pattern is truly astonishing, with many fabulous gradiated colors in a pattern resembling the scales of a fish fanning out from the center.

Naturally, we then had the opportunity to buy pottery, some of which was incredibly beautiful; John and I walked away with three small, inexpensive bowls, but one member of our group bought a service for 12!

Our next stop was lunch at an underground restaurant, where we sat on benches at a table -- both of which were carved out of stone, like the ones we'd seen the day before at the refectory in the Göreme Open Air Museum.

After lunch, we headed to the Kaymakli Underground City. This was incredible -- thousands of people lived there for up to six months at a time when they were in danger. The underground cities, of which there are dozens in the region, were originally dug by the Hittites, and later enlarged beginning in the 2nd century AD by the Christians who were trying to escape persecution by the Romans. They were abandoned in the 12th century AD when the Christians, facing renewed oppression, fled to other areas. The underground city featured very short, narrow passages that sometimes went on for as much as 25 feet -- we didn't quite have to crawl on our hands and knees in places, but it was a near thing! The passages were built this way on purpose to make it as difficult as possible for invaders, who could be easily killed as they came out of such a passage one by one.

After we finished at the underground city, we headed to Güzelyurt, but stopped on the way to meet and photograph a family harvesting potatoes in their fields. They were thrilled that we were taking pictures of them, and we promised to send them copies of the pictures. The children were particularly impressed with the digital cameras, since we were able to show them their photos right away on the LCD screen.

In Güzelyurt we're staying at a former monestary, and we have to climb a spiral staircase to get to our room! It's an amazing room, with a vaulted stone ceiling and four beds. And now, off to do some stargazing and write a few postcards!"

Mustafa Pasha

Cappadocia

Pottery Demonstration

Underground City

Potato Farmers

Güzelyurt