Churches and Chimneys

We had an amazing day! We joined a tour of the northern Cappadocia
region.

The Goreme Open-Air Museum was a valley full of tiny rock-hewn early Christian churches and houses connected with narrow tunnels. Some still had remnants of frescoes and geometric patterns depicting or representing various Biblical stories. This was from the 9th to 11th century. The colors came from red orchre or different plants. The faces or eyes were, well, defaced, and our guide explained that when the Ottaman Muslims came they removed the paint with rocks as it is unholy to paint a prophets face. And Jesus and others are prophets in Islam.

We explored a couple different rock-hewn villages and valleys seeing
fairy chimneys and a rock castle in Uchisar. Sometimes we had to climb ladders to get into these places, which, for the record, would never be allowed in the States without some handrails and 'watch your step' signs.

After lunch we toured a family-run 6th generation pottery making store. It is underground to help with the cooling process. The pieces are all handmade, hand-painted and absolutely gorgeous. And very pricey. A man demonstrated a couple of pieces, and then Kristin volunteered to try. She made a bowl. She shows some promise but needs some practice.

Deverent Valley (Imagination Valley) is a collection of the fairy chimneys where people go and create shapes (like we do with clouds).
We saw a very large camel, kissing ducks, a penquin, and a hand.

After wine-tasting Turkish wine from the region, we saw three fairy chimneys that our guide said wouldn't last more than 50 years. Because these bizarre formations are always exposed to the elements of erosion, overtime they disappear.

Walking around the village we were asked to sit and chat with some
very old Turkish men with thick graying beards and eyebrows of inch long hair. They really loved Andrew's thick beard and said he looks like Muhammad, which is funny because he is often told he looks like Jesus in Christian countries. Never have we seen a picture of Muhammad but it must be a complement.