Cappadocia, Turkey

The town of Goreme, Turkey where Cappadocia is. The city still uses the caves and rocks for hotels, homes, and places of business.

A hotel in Cappadocia.

A hotel in Cappadocia.

Tiny stools and table for tea.

Tourists use a stairway to see the inside of an ancient church.

Carved rooms in the rocks.

Entrance to a church.

The inside of an ancient church still has brightly painted frescoes.

Most of the eyes and faces have been scraped off the paintings. One opinion is that the Qur’an prohibits images of humans in temples, so the images were purposely destroyed.

Looking out from a cave doorway.

A Byzantine style cross.

From the outside, one would never guess this was inside a cave hole.

Rugs drying on a rooftop that overlook the city.

A hot air balloon passes our view of the moon in the early hours of the morning.

A tunnel of a huge underground city used by Christians in hiding from the Romans.

Rooms of the underground city.

Inside the underground city.

A view of our drive through the streets of Cappadocia.

A view of the volcano that helped create the unusual landscape of Cappadocia. Mt. Erciyes (also known as Mt. Argaeus)

A splash of color in the monotone landscape.

Dwellings.

Tourists climb into the caves.

It is said that the volcanic ash is what forms the rock underneath and the caps are made from volcanic lava which is much harder. The rock underneath erodes forming these structures.

Natural art.

A perspective on the size.

Volcanic lava on top of volcanic ash rock.

El Nazar Church

The inside of El Nazar church

Uchisar Castle

Mr Erciyes - the volcano that helped form the landscape of Cappadocia.