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!