Untold story of Capadocia/Katpatukya/Kapadocia

At places, in and around region we can see various volcanic cones (Refer google satellite images, marked in red circles). It gives direct evidence of extrusive igneous activity in the region. These volcanic complexes are said to be strata volcanoes and cinder cones. The phase of volcano is of ‘extinct volcanoes’. These volcanoes have been spewing volcanic ash in the geologic past. The geological setup of the area is softer rock formation at base is covered with harder rock formation at the surface. What does that mean? Imagine a layer cake, softer layer of cake, overlaid by a layer of harder biscuits layer. In the geological past (65 Million – 2 Million years ago) during the Alpine mountain building process, deep fissures and large depressed areas were created. These fissures allowed deep seated magma to erupt in the formations of volcanoes in this Anatolian region of Turkey.

Mount Erciyes Dağı is one of the extinct volcanoes, which is the highest point in the region. Mount Hasan Dağı is the yet another other extinct strata volcano which said to be second highest in the region. Acıgöl-Nevşehir is a third extinct caldera volcano in the region. This fine sized to coarse sized ash or tuffaceous material or pyroclast which erupted through these set of volcanoes got deposited into the surrounding region filling the depressed portions of the earlier topography/surface. This deposits of ash or tephra layer formed around 150 Meters in thickness.

These deposits of sediments of pyroclastic material in to existing depressions of the pre-existing topography leveled the land forming plateau regions. This is the formation which later got compacted. It is also named as Ürgüp formation. All the man-made features (Caves/underground cities) in the area are carved in to this formation. There is gap of few million years. After this millions of years’ time gap, there is extrusive layer of basaltic rock formation above it. ???? This gave rise to a profound unconformity between these two different formations.

Due to exposure of this structure to wind, rain, snow and other climatic changes the valley was cut through the weaker zones and the continuous alternating hot and cold climatic changes, the region got sculpted naturally to the current topography. Best example ‘Fairy Chimney exposures’.

All the tourist come to see this natural setup of the area. The drainage pattern of the area is result of the control of the geological factors of the area. Surface is covered with harder basaltic layer formation and base is of softer rocks. The water that is percolated or dripped from the surface cracks and runs down through the softer formations. The mechanical breakdown of softer layer of rock at the bottom was faster than that of the harder layer. Eventually this gave rise to the formation of pinnacles like structures. Further prolonged erosion of structure of the lower layer continued where these formed isolated pinnacles and shows chimney like structures in appearance. This process continues to happen even today. A phase comes where these vertical stacks or pinnacles collapse. Anthropogenic activities enhance or add up for more damage to this natural setup. Since different timings this area was used by different people for different purposes. Man has its own ability to make optimum use of nature to get best out of it for the survival. If you are planning to visit this place or have a video from the balloon ride, have a look at the place where you can see very few of fairy chimneys getting collapsed. Slowly the process will continue the damage to the natural setup. It also happens naturally as the erosional process are still active ad the softer base will keep getting eroded so the chances of collapsing are much higher and with the increasing number of anthropogenic activities we can be catalyst reason for the destruction. For future generation it will only be available in photos and videos to see that something like this existed in past. Which our ancestors witnessed it. It is my kind request to observe the nature and get the best feel of it. Try to understand the forces of nature that shows us these natural marvels.

Today we can see this place on all different internet sources. May it be beautiful creative photography or videography but we still need to visit it. This is because we want to see it with our own eyes, feel the forces of nature that can sculpt the beautiful landscape and experience the amazing wonder of nature. It’s the beauty of nature that pulls us towards it that just multimedia feel is not enough for us. Purpose of this blog will be served if each one of us take care of all such natural places and just visit for experiencing it without damaging it.

In some of my photographs of underground cities one can see cracks in softer formation filled with secondary mineralisation. Deposition of in veins of softer rocks.

Entire area is worth seeing this surface and subsurface topography. Being a geologist, I prefer seeing a natural beauty and set up of the area. As different civilisations flourished in and around area the view is a mixed view of human dwelling in different times. As the anthropogenic activity will advance in the area natural setup of the area will get affected and it won’t take much type to change the beauty of the place. It will get completely modified.

Historical connection of Cappadocia

Following are some places to be covered in and around Cappadocia region. Preferably hire a tourism company locally for getting a perfectly planned trip. They don’t charge very high. It is always better to have some local knowledge prior to visit.

UCHISAR CASTLE

It is constructed on the highest point of the region. It is totally distinct castle, it has graves, tunnels and churches, rare to find in any historical castle, the place is very unique in the world.

GÖREME OPEN AIR MUSEUM

Open Air Museum is important to understand the influence of the religion, especially of Christianity, on the region. For good reasons it is the most famous attraction, a complex of several cave-churches with frescoes carved out by Orthodox monks between 900 and 1200 AD. With other artifacts. It has entrance fees.

ÇAVUSIN OLD VILLAGE

Anicient Greek village. Çavusin is a village about 4 kilometers from Göreme. The old village is largely deserted because the area has been plagued by rock falls. At Çavusin you can visit the Church of John the Baptist which probably dates back to 5th -6th centuries. The view of Rose Valley is excellent from this village.

PASABAGI (MONK’S VALLEY)

The best place to see three-headed fairy chimneys. Pasabagı means the Pasha’s Vineyard, is surrounded by incredible natural rock formations; a spectacular scene.

POTTERY ART GALLERY

Since Hittites 2000 BC people could get the red clay(terra rosa) around Kızılırmak river which is the longest river of Turkey, and white clay ( caulin) from volcanic hills .They could use the clay to make pots and jars for their daily life by shaping the clay by their hand on the spinning wheels.

DEVRENT VALLEY

The ruins at Devrent are spread over three valleys, which also house several pointed fairy chimneys with large stems.

ÜRGÜP FAIRY CHIMNEYS

The “fairy chimneys” with caps, mainly found in the vicinity of Ürgüp, have a conical-shaped body and a boulder on top of it. The cone is constructed from tufa and volcanic ash, while the cap is of a harder, more resistant rock such as lahar or ignimbrite. The fairy chimneys which are symbols of Ürgüp are called holly spirit chimneys. There is mother, father and son fairy chimneys stay together.

GÖREME PANAROMA

Panoramic view of Goreme. You get information about history, formation of Cappadocia while watching the fairy chimneys in Göreme town.

DERINKUYU UNDERGROUND CITY

After driving about 40 minutes, arrival to Derinkuyu Underground City. This underground city was firstly, used by the late Romans as a shelter against potential Arabian invasions then used by local people as a natural deep freeze. Derinkuyu is the deepest underground city in the Cappadocia region. Underground dwellings in a shell shaped, about 20k people can live here at a time.

IHLARA VALLEY

Ihlara Canyon is 52 km. away from Derinkuyu Underground City. Approximately 45 minutes later, you will reach the entrance of Ihlara Valley. Ihlara Valley was formed by the volcanic actions of Mt. Hasan and Mt. Melendiz in the distinct of Aksaray province. Afterwards, Melendiz River eroded the valley for millions of years besides the layers cracked and fell down. Eventually, 100 meter- deep canyon was composed. Whole Valley is 14 km. length. In the past, generally Christians came and made dwellings and churches with wall paintings and also they carved grave rooms in the several parts of the Valley. You can hike for about 3,5 km of the valley. Hiking will last about an hour and 15 minutes. Then you will arrive to in Belisirma village. Here there are small restaurants where you can enjoy some Turkish food with local river fish variety.

YAPRAKHISAR PANAROMA

In Yaprakhisar you will see the nicest examples of conical fairy chimneys. Since the area is very similar to Star Wars Film Set, Yaprakhisar is known as “Star Wars Movie Set”.

SELIME MONASTRY

At first glance the monastery looks like a castle, but shelters, churches, chapels, bedrooms, storage and big cathedral proves us its being a monastery. You get information about the monastic life in Cappadocia.

PIGEON VALLEY

Upon arrival to Pigeon Valley, pigeons will meet you on the top of the valley. Pigeons have always been important for Cappadocian people. Their eggs and droppings were used for different purposes. For this reason, local people carved houses for them onto the slopes of valley. You will see the reason why people call them “houses”, when you see them.

ONYX FACTORY

You can visit to onyx factory in Uchisar. Onyx is a semi precious volcanic stone which has various colors and contains 3 different minerals in it. As being a volcanic area, Cappadocia has some onyx deposits especially around Hacıbektaş village. In the factory, a master will give you information about the steps of onyx shaping and you will watch a shaping show.

We stayed for three days in Cappadocia. Our stay was at Dream’s Cave Hotel. We had a choice of five star hotels over any cave hotel, but then we preferred to stay in the cave hotel which is actually carved in the rock formations of Cappadocia region. If you search online you may find plenty of Cave hotels. All of them will be with the name ‘cave hotel’ as a suffix. This place where we lived, its ambiance was very beautiful as we liked its natural setup. Experiencing of living in the cave was really very amazing. The room facilities were good and had all the basic necessities available for our stay as in any other luxury hotel. They had a nice breakfast cabin outside the hotel premises as to be used in chilled times of the year. We enjoyed Turkish hospitality, Turkish breakfast, lovely gardens with fire place, birds chirping around and nice warm out house. Each room had a fire place and it could be lit by the housekeeping personnel’s when required. They had nice Jacuzzi in room so that once we come tired from outing can sit in and relax inside the cave bathroom. The living room was quite large and had nice arrangements to spend the time. There was no window to our bathroom as it was having vertical vent/shaft for ventilation, which kept circulating natural air in and remove the steam formed in bathroom.

Actual Trip

For day one both of us preferred to take a walk and visit nearby locations where we stayed. Like any other tourists, we searched for in and around places and had enjoyed the valley view from Ortahisar Castle. It was calm and silent place with a very beautiful view of valleys and volcanoes at distant. We walked for around 5 km difficult terrain trail using map to visit this Göreme Open Air Museum. After walking for almost half an hour we reached some abandoned ruins of a church location which was far and in lonely outskirts. I felt it was a bad stunt as the location was wrongly located on the map. App showing the location was incorrect and we landed nowhere. Purpose behind sharing this experience is never carry valuables expensive jewelry or accessories and so on. Also, one must need to remember that the language is unknown and its totally lonely location we were walking as tourist. Just we enjoyed our return walk and were back to the hotel. As we had woken up early to travel and walked for long distance around 10 km on a bright sunny day made us tired and exhausted. We just returned and enjoyed the Jacuzzi. We had a dinner at a nearby restaurant, Tandir Café. We preferred eating proper Turkish food. The food and ambiance of hotel was really very good. It was really sad to see that there were very less tourists in and around Cappadocia. They mentioned sudden drop in tourist visiting this place. This is one of the purpose to write about a Geo-tourism blog to share information that can create a bridge between host and its visitors.

Our day 2 was a customised package tour for entire day. We had two options to select for Cappadocia Red Tour or the Classic tour and other one was Ihlara Valley tour.

Out of these two we choose Ihlara valley tour.

Here are some beautiful moments that I would like to share with you all from the Ihlara valley tour.

Early morning, we finished buffet breakfast at Dream’s Cave hotel. Which was yet again amazing Turkish breakfast. This was really amazing start for the day. Then we were taken by our small 4×4 to a Pigeon’s valley area.

Here we all were joined with all the other tour members who were living at different hotels in and around Cappadocia area. The view of pigeon’s valley was really amazing. We can see a course of river and a scenic view of the region. If you have read the description of geological setup of the area you will truly like the view. I tried to explain the geological setup of this area in very simple language for a non-geologist to understand and experience the natural beauty of the place. In this pigeon valley, you can see small pockets created in the softer walls for pigeons. Basically, it is for the valuable droppings of the birds. We also got to see some fossils and secondary mineral collection in this location. Here we also got to see a different variety of Hen family which had fleece on their feet. These types of hen are only found in Cappadocia.

Unique hen with fleece on legs

Unique hen with fleece on legs

The full stretch of the valley seen here is amazing it appears like it is made of white sand. You can find the tree with lots of blue eye souvenir hanging on it. Several pictures you can find with back drop of this tree with blue eyes, wide open sky behind and nice valley which can be seen beyond to longer distances.