Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H.G. Wells

I knew nothing about this area of turkey, even it’s location. I thought it was in Europe, which makes no sense as the European portion of turkey is relatively small. It was a 75 minute flight in an airbus 320 to get here so maybe 350 – 400 miles from Istanbul. Our comments on arrival were it looks like eastern Colorado or New Mexico. Dry, hilly, with sandstone like formation.

Well once again one’s expectations can be very wrong. It is an old volcanic area with collapsed calderas. Much of the “rock” is volcanic tuff, and relatively soft with over laid volcanic lava. It can make some very interesting formations. Here they are like hoodoos of the southwest United States. Columns with hats on top, but here the often look more like mushrooms.

But being populated for thousands of years, it turns out the tuff can be dug out and caves are made. 2000 years before Christ, people were building cities for protection underground. Some of these cities held as many as 20000 people. I equate it to a human termite nest. We visited one today which is now a museum. Fascinating. People, could stay below ground for as long as 6 months well protected living off of grapes and grains stored from last years harvest, protected quite well from invaders. Just a big wheel rolled in front of entrance tunnel and then invaders could be picked off one by one, as only one at a time fits in tunnel. Amazing architecture and design.

Amazing when one thinks of “primitive society’s” which were actually quite complex. Ventilation, water, food, cooking, waste, all basically taken care of. They used these cities until about 400 a.d.

The Roman empire extended this far. The Roman empire was built on slavery, and the rulers were considered near equal with the gods. Everywhere they conquered, they allowed local religions to continue and thrive except Christianity. Jesus preached against owning people, and that went against the Roman empire, hence the persecutions. The persecutions continued, and forced many monks to leave and go into hiding. Well they often ended up here in Capadocia. They would go into the little valleys where the rocks could be easily dug out into caves.

Hence capadocia is full of man made caves. The hotels are caves. Nearly all are “cave hotels”. Checking into our hotel, one is guided down tunnels winding various directions. It has taken me 3 days to learn how to get to our room without going “oops, wrong way”.

The monks built not only places to live but churches. Over the centuries since last really occupied by the “criminal” monks about 400 a.d.,the rocks have eroded and the fronts have fallen in or off and one sees the open rooms.

And then on our little tour is the food. Seems all meals start with appetizers and not just a little tidbit, but maybe a dozen or so sauces, dolmas, breads, fruits, cheeses, olives,

Then the desserts, baklava, ice cream or some very tasty thing. Often followed by tea.

Carpets are a big thing here as to cover the rock floor. We went to a carpet place where they make and teach carpets. Oh my what a process. Not just machine made things but hand made often taking months to make a single carpet. And size makes no difference to price. We saw some worth many thousands (and more) which were 30 and 40 centimeters in size. In the end we did buy one and in the purchase I was able to obtain the passcode to make it fly. When it is delivered in 8-10 weeks we shall see if it works.

Our guide Halil is amazing. A masters degree in tourism and guiding, as well as a student of history and professor of history at the university. His knowledge level and ability to convey it is astonishing. He has made arrangements for a home meal with his wife’s aunt. And several of the beyond superb restaurants are his friends.

It is a tourist area, though and lots of people. The town we are staying in has a population of 2000 with 400 hotels,. Hot air ballooning is quite popular here with about 150 balloons a day going up 250 days a year with the baskets holding up to 24 people. I was the lone hold out of 6 in our group who did not go up. Why, I can’t answer that, but I stayed back and took pictures from the hotel balcony.

Tonite we went to a performance of the whirling dervishes. They are a Muslim religious order but are not really in existence any more. They lived as a monastery which is really a religious school. Turkey is a secular country despite a huge percentage of Muslims, and Turkey does not allow any educational system either public or private to teach religion. It was designed this way to prevent fanaticism.

But what was amazing was tonite talking with the hotel night staff. A refugee from Afghanistan. He left in 2016, as his family was ostracized as relatives had worked for the United States. His English was superb, with Jeanne and I estimating his accent was southwest United States. He just learned different accents.

And as usual I must say in this writing this is what I remember. It may or may not be true but it is as I absorbed it. Hopefully it is the truth. We have been given an incredible amount of knowledge. I try desperately to learn and remember but?

Once again I learn there are different ways of doing things, not better not worse, just different.