Turkiye Part Two - Ankara to Cappadocia

 Astounding/Awesome/Majestic/Beautiful - These are just a few words to try to describe Cappadocia and the Goreme Valley.  The one thing I regret about visiting this amazing site is that I want to spend a much longer time there.  There are so many hiking trails and valleys with hundreds literally of these incredible fairy chimneys - some of which are still inhabited.  We visited one that is/was a church hewn out of rock with frescoes from the days when this church/rock was most likely Greek Orthodox.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  

Our first stop after leaving Istanbul was at the Mausoleum of Mustafa Ataturk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey and still beloved by almost everyone in the country.  When does that happen?  The day we visited a group of veterans showed up to pay their respects to their admired leader.  

After visiting the mausoleum, we spent a night in Ankara before heading off to Cappadocia with a brief stop at Lake Tuz, a large salt lake which sometimes takes on a pinkish hue due to minerals.

Me at Lake Tuz

View from my hotel room in Ankara

                               

Then we arrived in Cappadocia.  It was everything I had expected and more.  I'll let the photos speak but I will add that the wine from this region is really, really good! 

 

This balloon went right over my head!

Happy person!

 

A new city over an abandoned? one

 Lastly we visited the underground city of Kaymakli thought to have been built in the Hitite era (almost 2000 years BC!).  I can't imagine living underground and having to stoop to walk through passageways but they had it figured out.  Researchers still aren't sure how they cooked without smoking everything up, nor do they understand how they dealt with waste.  So interesting!  We were able to go down 4 stories but there were 4 more below us that are still being excavated!

They had a room to make wine!

One of the narrow passageways.

 Within a few days I hope to do the final installment on Turkiye which will include all the archeological sites.  A lot to digest!

Turkiye - Much More Than I Expected - Part One - Istanbul

 My trip to Turkiye (Turkey) began because of my fascination with the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia and the desire to see and experience them is why I initially booked a trip to this surprisingly beautiful country.  If someone had asked me to describe the country, I would have said that I believed it to be mostly dry, arid land.  I was very wrong.  I was initially surprised by the sheer size of Istanbul.  It is huge with a population of over 18,000,000 currently and rising.  As you would expect with that number of people, there is traffic but their infrastructure is excellent both in the cities and the countryside with public transport, great roads and highways and beautiful bridges. 

The second surprise for me was the amount of agriculture in this country.  They have orchards filled with peaches, cherries, hazel nuts, olives, figs and citrus and seem to grow everything from cotton to squash and more. There are miles and miles of rich and fertile farmland - an unexpected surprise for me!

Istanbul - As I mentioned a city of enormous size both in population and land and separated by the Bosphorus River.  The history of Istanbul, formerly Constantinople is so vast and complex having been attacked by many and conquered by some.  I realize I need to divide this blog into sections because there is so much about Istanbul!  Believe it or not, I am posting only a few of the sites in this amazing city.

Landing in Istanbul

The Grand Bazaar

Dried Eggplants and Peppers for Sale

The Galata Tower

Another view

 

Yummy!

 

 

 

Suleymaniye Mosque seen from the Bosphorus River

     

 

There is so much history with many of these photos.  I'll be brief...The Galata Tower was built during the Byzantine era and destroyed by the crusaders. It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times.  The Suleymaniye Mosque was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1500's and was built by a famous Turkish architect named Sinan. 

A Whirling Dervish

A Mosque on the Bosphorus

This and below are inside the Suleymaniye Mosque - just stunning!

The Hagia Sophia - Greek Orthodox, Christian, destroyed several times and now a mosque but frescoes of Jesus, Mary and the seraphim inside are being restored.

The Cistern Basilica originally used for water storage - What a beautiful place!

A statue of Medusa in the Cistern Basilica

Part of the ancient wall

A partially restored fresco from the Hagia Sophia

An ancient aqueduct

The gates to an Asian inspired palace on the outskirts of the city