Magical Cappadocia - Mother Nature as master sculptor

There are some places in the world where Mother Nature has employed all of her creativity. Cappadocia is one such area. Over millions of years, she has created a wondrous landscape that exceeds all imagination. But Cappadocia is not only of interest because of its landscape. Evidence of thousands of years of civilization also makes this unearthly place an experience in itself. They can be found everywhere in the shape of fascinating rock dwellings, hidden churches with brightly coloured wall paintings that have stood the test of time unscathed and underground villages that provide protection from the plundering hordes. Life in Cappadocia is still closely entwined with Mother Nature’s gifts and its history, scenery, culture and art all form part of daily activities.

By |Cindy van Vliet

Whenever you think of Cappadocia, you think of ‘fairy chimneys’ of course. Or rather those oddly shaped pillars with ‘hats’ that stick up in the landscape, resembling elongated mushrooms. There isn’t a single brochure or tale about the area that doesn't mention them. And it’s true: you simply haven’t been to Cappadocia if you haven't had some time at these amazing rock formations that can be seen in their full glory in Urgüp.

This area used to be called the ‘Valley of the monks’ and has a chapel dedicated to St. Simeon. St. Simeon lived near Aleppo in the 5th century. At some time or other word got round that he could perform miracles. Upset by all the fuss he retreated to the top of a two metre high fairy chimney and later moved to one that was 15 metres high. He only came down occasionally to get food and water brought by his disciples.

But Cappadocia is so much more than this. It is located pretty much in the middle of Turkey and covers an area of almost 2000 square kilometres between Aksaray, Nevşehir, Niğde, Kayseri and Kırşehir. The government has given various parts protected status and both the Göreme National Park and the rock formation have been on the Unesco World Heritage List, the United Nations organisation for culture, since 1985.

Modern-day Cappadocia is the product of processes from both the distant and recent past. Millions of years ago the area that is now called Cappadocia was dominated by three enormous volcanoes: Erciyes, Hasandağ and Güllüdağ. They are now just mountains, having ceased activity a long time ago. Back then though they erupted regularly, together with smaller volcanoes, spewing layers of ash, mud and lava over the Nevşehir plateau. The lava compressed the ash, forming porous stone called pumice.

When the volcanic activity had stopped, the process of forming the odd rock formations, for which Cappadocia is so well known, began. The action of water, as it wound its way through the valleys, and the wind and rain that swept across the plateau, began eroding the soft layers of pumice. And thus Mother Nature sculpted fanciful shapes from the porous stone. Because cooled lava (basalt) is much harder than pumice, some chunks of basalt remained on top of the softer erosive lower layer. This is how those incredible rock formations that you see everywhere in the form of cones, chimneys and mushrooms came into being. The process of erosion continues even now and is actually one of the biggest threats facing this magical world.

Because the landscape is dominated by the very porous pumice, it was easy to transform. The stone also provided protection against Anatolia’s harsh winters and hot summers and, lest we forget, the plundering hordes and hostile intruders. The first inhabitants of Cappadocia soon discovered this and began digging homes out of the rocks. Their successors extended this with churches and entire underground cities.

Uçhisar has many examples of similar rock formations, although no one officially lives there any more since the government gave it protected area status. We end up here having begun our excursion at the well-known formation of ‘fairy chimneys’ in Ürgüp. One of the formations belongs to Ishmael. It has now been transformed into a tourist attraction and cafeteria. But it’s still nice to see how it must have been to live here in such a cone shaped rock house. It feels like we’re visiting Ishmael at his home and not in a ‘show home’.

Ishmael tells us that his father, grandfather and many father before him all lived in this rock house. He lived there too for a few years during his youth. “It was nice”, he says. “In the summer it’s nice and cool and in the winter nice and warm.” When we ask him where he lives he produces a 50 YTL note. It depicts the cone shaped rock houses, as well as the ‘fairy chimneys’. “That’s where I live. The 50 YTL note is my business card. But you can’t keep it, ha.”

After tea we say goodbye to Ishmael and continue the tour upwards, where the Uçhisar citadel marks the highest point. Just like Ortahisar, where we stop off later on, the citadel was built for defence as well as to live in.

It’s crazy to see such a huge rock towering up above the landscape. Inside there are lots of holes that used to be houses. But as the pumice has eroded further, the risk of collapse increased and drove people away. People do still live in the, often dilapidated, houses that adjoin the citadel. It’s nice, especially in Ortahisar, to spend a while strolling through the streets and savouring the unique atmosphere. At first glance the houses appear deserted and ramshackle, but are actually still occupied. They have a unique character with their semi-circular doors painted in all manner of colours.

We return to the car because we still have so much to see. Our excursion takes us through the potters’ village of Avanos, where there is also a renowned carpet manufacturer, then further on towards Göreme. Our guide Murat....from Aldi Tours in Alanya, who has accompanied us personally, doesn’t have a set route this time and we let ourselves be guided by the brochure from the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and the sign posts.