I can’t take any credit for this destination. Cheryl W suggested it as a side trip from Istanbul and I am glad she did! Geologically, Cappadocia is a bed of volcanic ash and basalt stones that erode in a way to create what people call a “fairy chimney”. Others say it looks like a moonscape. By any name, they are very cool.

Historically, the area was home to early Christians who settled in caves here and created small churches within the rocks. I am reading a history of the early church by Eusebius (History of the Church from Christ to Constantine) written over a decade from roughly 315 – 325 AD. The book is really a compilation of earlier, and often anti-semetic, works from Josephus to the apostles to Diocletian and records years of persecution endured by the Christians in this and other areas. (The persecution is ended once Constantine the Great defeats the Roman Maxentius in 313 AD.)

Anyway, our guide tells us there are more than 300 churches remaining but the best preserved are in Goreme. We spent a day visiting the fairy chiminies and a series of caves and churches before checking into our own cave (a rather nice boutique hotel version).

Nearby in Avanos, there are several ceramics worksops. According to our guide, the Hittites were making vessels here roughly 3000 years ago from the sand of the red river. Later, when China’s porcelain was popular, local artisans began using the white sand of the mountains to provide the Sultans with white clay ceramics.  I can’t verify it, but we were told that the potters here invented the kick-wheel (a wheel that turns the clay as the potter works).

But it wasn’t all educational – we went up in a hot air balloon and rode Arabian horses too!

A final thought: our guide encouraged us to try the Turkish apricots while we were in town. I LOVE dried apricots but the Turkish ones, well, I’ve never cared for them. But he pressed me to reconsider. They are dried organically and taste good, he said, unlike those we export. “It’s the illness of this century these processed and packaged foods.” On this we agree but California’s dried apricots are still better, IMHO.