Blog 23: Adana Road Trip 3 - Cappadocia Part 2.

Cappadocia – Part 2.  

The cities and township in the Cappadocia region are approx. 2.5 hours to 3 hour drive inland from Adana on good roads.  

Once you get off the traffic jammed dusty streets of Adana the highways between cities and modern and good. The Government has recently improved and shortened the journey towards Cappadocia and also towards Antalya I am told with new express ways. They are all tollways but great, at least 3 lanes each way and pass some wonderful scenery.

They  tunnel straight through the mountains which is a bit of a thrill, I counted 8 we went through. It would make a great race track or computer game race track! lol Very impressive and makes the journey interesting.

You can find Bus operators for any destination in Turkey on Turhan Cemel Beriker Blv in the Heart of Adana. 

  The highlighted area above is place where all the bus companies ticket offices are in Adana

You’ll need someone to translate if you don’t speak Turkish. So if you don’t speak Turkish, better to seek a Tour operator though the internet to find their location.

Tours come with transport, accommodation, lunch meals and a guide. (Note: Accommodation in Turkey usually comes with breakfast anyway) 

Tours are reasonably priced if you buy them in Turkey. Buy a tour before you get to Turkey and you’ll probably pay double because everyone takes their cut. And It’s cheaper again to buy tours in Adana than buying tours in Istanbul. They have not realised their tourist potential yet so they’re not accustom to over-charging tourist like they do elsewhere in Turkey. The only catch is it’s hard to find someone that speaks English in Adana!

 Tip: If you’re a tourist, the key anywhere in Turkey is to never accept first price.

I do have an advantage in that respect because of my Turkish family here in Adana and in Istanbul. 

I can get Turkish local price rather than tourist price.  Tourist will always pay a higher price for the fact only that they are tourist and therefore apparently can afford higher prices. If you have blond hair and a foreign face you can’t hide the fact!  I always try to stay in the background when we want to buy something, if they see me coming I the price will increase.

Above: Goreme Buses and tours

 

A two night tour to Cappadocia from Adana will set you back between 200 and 300 litra depending on season. Covering transport, accommodation tours and meals whilst on day tours. It’s the best way to go really.

Our last road trip from Adana to Cappadocia was by bus in 2009 with tours and in 2013 by car, self explore tour. In 2009 we took the green tour, so on our road trip this time in 2013 we explored the things that were on the red tour. 

When you get to Goreme or Urgup (the central towns of Cappadocia) you will find plenty of tour houses all offering basically the same thing, red, green, brown tours plus some variations and add-on. (for instance; a balloon Tour extra will set you back a minimum of 200 lira for 1 to 2 hours but for many Tourist is the highlight of Turkey) Your Hotel will help you with tours also.

 The normal price is 100 lira per person a Red or Green tour, small children free. You’ll visit about 5 wonderful destinations. Each Tour includes also the usual tourist trap like a pottery house, carpet, wine or onyx house. They are interesting to see how it is all made but they shut the door behind you and have inflated prices with good sales pitches.

Tip: There is always one tourist trap in any tour. That fact goes for most tours in Turkey.  Buy your goods in the township shops rather than at the tourist trap shop. The little shops near each tourist site entry usually have higher prices, but it’s nice to buy something  there for the experience. We did. Just remember to barter for the best price.

The tour guides / companies get a commission usually for taking you to at least one tourist trap. However they can be very interesting too. My tip is enjoy the information of the tourist trap destination, don’t give in to the high pressure sales pitches, buy your goods in the little township shops after some healthy bartering. You’ll save so much money and be surprised you can get all in the little township shops also!  

In our first tour we got caught by the Tourist trap sales pitch. They said “onyx stones” were running out and they only had this special type of stone here at this location. So we purchase this rare small onyx bowl for 25 Euro only to find back at Urgup we could by a bigger, prettier and just as good quality in plentiful supply for only 12 lira at any little tourist shop! Duh!

Below: Pictures of Goreme - The town we stayed in the first night

In Nov 2013 our Cappadocia road trip was  great. We didn’t take a tour because we could drive but it would have been good to have a guide along sometimes to explain the sites. We stayed in Goreme for the first night with some basic yet fascination accommodation at the Shoe String Cave Hotel. You actually stay in a cave at this hotel but there is no TV and it’s pretty basic. But if your there just for the tours, a basic hotel is all you need. 

If you want a real cave experience though, go a little higher market, there are some better Cave hotels higher up on the hill that offer fantastic views and better amenities. But you’ll pay a higher price. If you are going for the first time, take the higher price route, the experience will be better. 

I have already covered in Adana – Cappadocia road trip part 1 the underground cities, and churches so this one is just about what was not covered in our two day trip. We went to site just outside Goreme, I believe it was Devrent Imaginary valley (no tour guide).  The incredible rock formations rising from the ground like minarets, surrounded by fairy chimney valleys and houses, churches and dwellings of all sorts build within these stones. I wish I had a day to explore the valley but there was so much more to see. 

Whilst my wife and mother-in-law were caught at one of the little village tourist market stores, I took advantage and explored a little anyway, climbing up a hill side and reaching my arm high with my camera so it could take a picture into one of these dwelling openings with a flash. Amazing when I looked at what picture I had taken. (note: many openings are hard to get to without ladders etc, on purpose to deter unauthorised entry such as marauding armies over the centuries.)
 

The picture below is the pictures I took. It appears to be a very well preserved dwelling with ottoman style decorations so maybe from the early centuries of ottoman history?? Maybe somebody can tell me??

From there we visited sites on the road site and the open air museum which was truly amazing and like a hillside full of ancient churches, food halls and dwellings of importance. It’s a must see when visiting Cappadocia. Pictures below will do the talking because it all in one place.

We stayed the next night in Urgup, again in a budget motel.  Same advice stands. Go for experience in these locations. Anyway it was convenient for us and close to the township of a night. 

Some great tourist shops and restaurants to explore and they are open late. We ate a great little family restaurant that night, the meals delicious!

To be continued.... Aussie in Adana

Blog 22: Adana Road Trip 3 – Cappadocia – PART 1: History

Adana Road Trip – Cappadocia – PART 1: History

Cappadocia is the name of a region which is famous all round the world for its thousands of fairy like chimneys stone formations which many have been hollowed out of rocks. These rocks are easy to carve out thanks to fallout of Volcanic activity millions of years ago. This hollowed out caves which  have been made over thousands of years were the homes and many still are the homes, restaurants and hotels of today. I even saw a fair chimney cave home for sale!! Wow!

  Cappadocia is about a 3.5 hour drive from Adana

And Cappadocia is also famous for its underground cities like those at Kaymakli near Nevsehir, 8 stories deep.  (Kaymakli is reviewed later in this blog). It’s really a site to behold and spectacular to say the least. 

If you go to Turkey then you must visit Cappadocia! It is number 1 on my list and this road trip is my 2^nd to this location as I love the place!!

History in Brief:

Cappadocia’s name can be traced back to the 6^th Century BC and is even recorded in the Bible.

Acts 2:9 New King James Version (NKJV) ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia. 

Cappadocia lies in eastern Anatolia, in the center of Turkey. The area consists of a high plateau over 1000 m in altitude that is pierced by volcanic peaks, with Mount Erciyes ( Ancient Argaeus) near Kayseri (ancient Caesarea) being the tallest at 3916 m.

The area is a story of empires and marauding armies and is very significant place of early Christians hiding from these armies. 

Cappodocia has being ruled by the Persians and Alexander the Great ,  the Greeks, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Byzantines , the Ottomans and as well as  interesting Armenian, Crusader histories. 

The region was gradually succeeded by the Ottoman Empire over course of the 15th century until till the 20^th century and now remains now part of the modern state of Turkey.

Cappadocia contains several underground cities that were used largely by early Christians as hiding places before Christianity became an accepted religion.

There are many fantastic underground churches in the Cappadocia region. They have been calved out of the rock and in many cases, even inside the fairy chimney formations which is just fantastic to see and literally straight out of Star Wars!! These churches are decorated with wonderful early Christian paintings on their walls and ceilings dating back to the early centuries AD.

Below: El Nazar "Fair Chiminy" Church near Goreme.

Although there is early Greek titles explaining the painting, mostly the early Christians did their teaching via pictures so you can see the entire story of Christ in story book fashion around the walls. Very impressive!

Many of these paintings are faded however there are still many surprisingly vivid in colour and clarity which is supprising after so many centuries. Unfortunately many of these also bare the signs of vandalism. 

You can see a great number of saints depicted in the paintings have had their eyes chipped away, only the very highest on the ceilings staying in tacked. But still, it’s all very impressive and gives you a good indication of the life and faith of the early Christians.   

  Above: Christian Paintings at El Nazar Church near Goreme.

It is an unfortunate legacy all around Turkey that many historical sites bare signs of graffiti and vandalism, both historical and modern. I guess if you have history all around you and everywhere you look, it’s not so valuable to you and so you don’t have agencies or establishments to watch over and protect it like we do at home through Rangers or National Parks personnel enforcing fines.  

Many Turkish houses (or buildings structures because they are not be built to any plan or Development Application) close by ruins you can see have made use of some of those ancient stone as building blocks for their buildings!

 To an Australian, with a built “Colonial” Australian history of only a couple of hundred years, and an indigenous history that maybe one of the oldest in the world, but has few significant land marks other than ancient carvings, cave paintings and burial sites, it’s hard to understand why many of Turkeys historical sites aren’t better preserved or protected.  We have few so I guess they are more precious to us. In Australia we protect what history we have and the indigenous sites of the aboriginal people are sacred, and the source or protest if they are endangered by some big mining company. 

Below is one of the underground churches of the open-air museum near Goreme. It has the best examples of early Christian paintings that you will see and mostly intact. Unfortunately you can't take photos so buy a Cappadocia book, they are full of great pictures. They only 10 lira in the towns or 20 lira or Euro near from the tourist shops near the sites (buy in the townships shops!!)

I did sneak some video of one of the other churches at this site. Below. :-)

Turkey is the cradle of whole civilizations, has archaeology of wholes cites and is wonderland of precious historical sites beyond words or belief! And a great many of them are within easy reach of the city of Adana! Like Cappadocia and these wonderfully fascinating underground cities.

These underground cities in Cappadocia have vast defence networks of traps throughout their many levels against Roman and Muslim armies. These defence systems were mainly used against the Romans. 

Below:  Kaymakli underground city near Nevsehir. 

Warning, is not for the claustrophobic! They will take your money at the ticket office, you will enter the first tunnel and realize you can't go further and they will NOT refund you money! (My wife and parents realized at the first opening down the steps they could not go further so the few steps cost them full admission. They were also a little rude to us when we asked for refund. I went on alone)

So if your a little claustrophobic, get a postcard and save yourself the panic attacks. 

There are narrow channels between living spaces, they are long and small and if you're tall you may find yourself on your hands and knees.

Below:  Video Kaymakli underground city

My tip: Hire a local guide. 40 Lira should do the job. You'll feel better and learn some along the way. It will be a better experience for a little extra cost. Guides are waiting at the entry ways. Bargain, don't take their first price. Below is a picture of a guide bargaining with tourist near the entry way into the underground city.

 The tunnel systems have thin corridors where only a single person could pass and therefore take away the Roman fighting advantage of fighting in organised groups. The Romans were easy to pick them off in these thin corridors.

Cappadocia is truly a remarkable and historical place filled with fascination and wonderful ancient underground and fair chimney churches. It has to be seen to be believed and a truly a wonder of the world. Where else can you book a motel which has been carved out of rock a thousand years before and stay in those caves today!

In Part two I will give tips, show some great places in Cappadocia, tours and how to get around. This first blog was just some setting the scene and history.

Andrew