Cappadocia is a region of Turkey about three hours south and east of Ankara, and has long been a center of tourism. The local geology is rather odd, and features a very light rock matrix that can be excavated using wooden spoons. Early settlements consisted of caves, and early Christians (escaping persecution, of course) set up large underground communities and many small churches dug from the very living rock. Well, the rock is really dead (otherwise there would have been a lot of rock screaming; maybe that is where Keith Richards came from, now that I think of it. He is old enough to have been there, after all...).
This is the sign announcing that this is the BEST view of Goreme! A scenic outlook if there ever was one, to be sure.
The dirt eroded away, exposing the white rock matrix.
Which promptly (geologically speaking) eroded.
The white building with the covered patio is the hotel. The bottom floor rooms are carved into the rock; they used to be used for wine storage. Now they are used for American storage.
This is an old caravan stop; the building is only 300-odd years old (and is full of carpets, as befitting its current station as a carpet...shop...). The Saturn belongs to my wife; although she has never been to Turkey, her car certainly has. Pay no attention to the Hawaii inspection sticker on the rear bumper there, all Turkish cars have those.
The city probably hasn't changed much in a long time. Cobblestone streets, buildings with lower floors (or entire back halves) built into the rock matrix...the water truck is probably fairly new, though.
A Bonus Picture. A ruined building carved from the rock and...balloons! No extra charge for the tree limbs.
Yes, they smelled nice too.
There were a lot of wagons, all with tax ID numbers. Death and taxes...
Farmers are farmers. The horse-drawn shtick only goes so far.
Just up the road is a "castle" cut into an outcropping. On the way was a place advertised as a "fixer upper", a real handyman's special.
