If you do a google image search for Cappadocia you will find mostly photos of hot air balloons over the landscape. As amazing as that experience is, there’s so much more to Cappadocia, and even though we were there for 4 fun-filled days, we barely scratched the surface. Although we enjoyed our “Green Tour” a lot, we decided we would explore on our own on our remaining days. We had a car and set off to explore.

Göreme Open Air Museum

Göreme Open Air Museum redefines the word museum. It is a large valley containing a monastic cave settlement dating back to the 9th-11th centuries, with numerous cave dwellings, and several churches, many with impressive frescoes. The Göreme Open Air Museum has been a  UNESCO World Heritage site since 1984, and was one of the first two UNESCO sites in Turkey. It was so interesting to pop in and out of the caves and imagine life here so long ago. Today many of the caves are accessed by somewhat rickety staircases, but originally they would have been very well hidden. Photography is not allowed inside the cave churches, but I couldn’t go all that way and not have any photos to remember it by, so I did manage to sneak a few wonky shots on my phone.

The “Nunnery” contains a dining hall, kitchen and some bedrooms, as well as a ruined chapel. We didn’t go inside this one.

It was quite crowded, with large busloads of tour groups, but it was a large open space, so it wasn’t too bad.

Thanks for the warning!

Heading up to one of the churches

In St Basil’s Chapel. Apparently St Basil is also a dragon-slayer.

The “Apple Church”, named for the apple orchard, collapsed a long time ago, that was in front of the main entrance.

Cynthia Cardui, Butterfly. We saw lots of these, which migrate from North Africa in the spring.

We were there.

St Barbara’s Chapel

The “Snake Church”, named for this fresco of St George killing the dragon (or snake)

A refectory table carved from the rock.

Motifs were painted in red directly onto the rock. The walls and the dome are decorated in a variety of motifs including geometrical patterns, mythological animals and military symbols.

The “Dark Church” (because there is very little natural light) is said to be the best one, but sadly it was closed for restoration.

The entrance to the Dark Church.

There are a number of graves in the caves. I assume these bones are replicas, but I don’t know for sure.

Entrance to the Chapel of St Catherine.

Frescoes in the Chapel of St Catherine. (11th century)

The Sandal Church, so called because of two “footprints” in the floor of the cave.

The “Buckle Church” has the most impressive frescoes, and an inerior with multiple columns and arches, but it is still a cave. It is the oldest known rock church in the region (9th century).

Valley Views

In reality, the whole of Cappadocia is like an open air museum. After a brief lunch stop in a cafe with a stunning view, we visited some poetically named valleys – Pigeon Valley (named for the pigeon holes dotting the hills), Rose Valley (for the red coloured rocks) and Love Valley, so-called because of the … ahem … phallic shape of the fairy chimneys in that location.

Lunch with a view

Gozleme – can’t visit Turkey without eating Gozleme

Manti, also known as “Turkish Ravioli”, a delicious new discovery.

Note the person in the bottom right corner (red jumper) – this gives an idea of the scale in this photo.

A Japanese (?) wedding photo shoot. She must have been freezing! Great background for the photos. though.

Rose Valley is named for the prominent red colouring in the rocks.

Uçhisar Castle

As if ballooning and climbing rocks is not challenging enough for an acrophobic like me, we decided to ascend to the highest point in Cappadocia, Uçhisar Castle. It’s not so much a castle as a large rocky hill, with rooms and tunnels carved into the hillside. During Ottoman and Byzantine times, this castle provided excellent defense. The main attraction nowadays is the panoramic, 360° view from the top of the castle. It was cold and windy, and actually raining by the time we left, but it was worth the effort and the anxiety of the steep ascent.

View of the town of Uçhisar and Uçhisar Castle

Uçhisar Castle up close. Note the flag on top (you’ll see it in a later photo)

Interesting phone booth at the entrance to the castle.

Like I need to see warnings like this!

Standing in front of the flag, to prove we were there.

Look – no hands!!

Part of the spectacular view from the top

In case you are wondering how we got up, there were stairs (mostly)

Turkish Night

We ended the day at what they call “Turkish Night” – in a large cave/restaurant, dinner and traditional Turkish dancing. It was recommended, and rated very highly on TripAdvisor, but we were not impressed. The food was ordinary, and served in the dark, and there was no program, host or compere, so although the dancers were excellent, we had no idea what we were watching. Most of the audience were large tour groups, and we were appalled to see them all being called by their guide to leave well before the show ended (walking right across the stage to leave). For the last half hour, we four were the entire audience! We did enjoy that time, and the dancers all thanked us for staying.

Our view of the dancing, from the depths of a cave.

When most people had left, we moved to much better seats,

The grand finale, especially for the four of us!