We had been given the option of hot air ballooning in Cappadocia as it was meant to be some of the best hot air ballooning experiences in the world. Unfortunately the price reflected that (at 150 quid each!) so we decided to pass. Quite a few of the others in the tour took up this option and they had a really early start which meant we had a sleep in for a change. We used this opportunity to go to the gym in the hotel, and to be honest it was a pretty rubbish gym. But Lou was enjoying the buffets way too much to not exercise!
First stop today was Kaymaklı Underground City. The houses in the village are constructed around the nearly one hundred tunnels of the underground city. The tunnels are still used today as storage areas, stables, and cellars. Of the four floors open to tourists, each space is organized around ventilation shafts. This makes the design of each room or open space dependent on the availability of ventilation.
Lou was a bit hesitant but she overcame the uneasiness with claustrophobia and went in. The caves are cool like you would expect and obviously very dark. The most interesting part was the varied rooms they had excavated, each room had a purpose, and they had built ventilation shafts for their cooking and stuff. They even had a church underground! The rooms that we saw were only the fraction of the city that existed, they reckon that over 20,000 people lived underground between the 5th and 10th centuries.
First stop today was Kaymaklı Underground City. The houses in the village are constructed around the nearly one hundred tunnels of the underground city. The tunnels are still used today as storage areas, stables, and cellars. Of the four floors open to tourists, each space is organized around ventilation shafts. This makes the design of each room or open space dependent on the availability of ventilation.
Lou was a bit hesitant but she overcame the uneasiness with claustrophobia and went in. The caves are cool like you would expect and obviously very dark. The most interesting part was the varied rooms they had excavated, each room had a purpose, and they had built ventilation shafts for their cooking and stuff. They even had a church underground! The rooms that we saw were only the fraction of the city that existed, they reckon that over 20,000 people lived underground between the 5th and 10th centuries.
From their we continued on to the Goreme Open Air museum which is basically where you go to see the unbelievable rock formations, known in Turkey as “fairy chimneys”. It seriously looks like another planet, there are so many of these things just spread out as far as the eye can see. It was so awesome to see these and how people back in the day and been clever enough to make their homes in them. We took about 500 photos and then headed out to another great viewing spot.
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| Someones sweet house built inside the rock. |
For the science geeks the reason why the rocks are like this are, sedimentary rocks formed in lakes and streams and ignimbrite deposits erupted from ancient volcanoes approximately 9 to 3 million years ago, during the late Miocene to Pliocene epochs, underlie the Cappadocia region. The rocks of Cappadocia near Göreme eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars and minaret-like forms. The volcanic deposits are soft rocks that the people of the villages at the heart of the Cappadocia Region carved out to form houses, churches, and monasteries.
Even today they are still using the buildings for modern purposes, like motorbike garages and police stations...
Even today they are still using the buildings for modern purposes, like motorbike garages and police stations...
That night everyone was a little bit excited as tonight was the night that we were meant to be seeing one of the worlds great wonders…a meteor shower.The people on our tour seemed to be split into 2 groups, some that seemed to care about the stars and some that don’t. We were in the group that didn’t. But we went along, and listened to the lecture that they put on by this random astronomy lecturer who spent about 20 mins trying to get his power point to work (amateur mistake) and also randomly included pictures of his pets.
Apparently we were meant to see about 5 meteors a minute, so we were pretty amped. We headed out about 9pm to a spot in the desert and wrapped up (it was freezing) and waited. Thankfully they had all given us yoga mats, so we sat and waited and waited. Then another bus load of astronomy students arrived and set up a crazy telescope so we knew it was meant to be the real deal. We had a peek and saw the moon and Jupiter up close through a proper telescope which was awesome. It was so bright!
Anyway to sum it up we saw about 5 meteors in about 90 minutes. Lou, not having the most patience in the world, got back on the bus as it was about minus 10 degrees. Then finally we called it quits. The part of the group that were on this trip for this particular night were all very quiet. And poor Tanami (the wee Japanese astronomy student, who had flown all the way from Tokyo for this), cried. Sad.
Apparently we were meant to see about 5 meteors a minute, so we were pretty amped. We headed out about 9pm to a spot in the desert and wrapped up (it was freezing) and waited. Thankfully they had all given us yoga mats, so we sat and waited and waited. Then another bus load of astronomy students arrived and set up a crazy telescope so we knew it was meant to be the real deal. We had a peek and saw the moon and Jupiter up close through a proper telescope which was awesome. It was so bright!
Anyway to sum it up we saw about 5 meteors in about 90 minutes. Lou, not having the most patience in the world, got back on the bus as it was about minus 10 degrees. Then finally we called it quits. The part of the group that were on this trip for this particular night were all very quiet. And poor Tanami (the wee Japanese astronomy student, who had flown all the way from Tokyo for this), cried. Sad.
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| The moon. That's it. |
Hightlight: Definitely the amazing scenery, unlike anything we had seen before and we got some awesome photos too. Loving the SLR camera
Lowlight: A little part of us felt like we missed out on the hot air ballooning, but we will do it another day for sure. And the metors, blow out.
Interesting Fact: Apparently (according to this astronomy website) some Danish guy saw over 30 meteors in 30 minutes. Great.
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