Thoughts on Cappadocia

I’d not heard of Cappadocia in Turkey until chatting to Nick and Briony, the English couple I’d met in Sofia. They sold it enough for me to incorporate it into my plans and what a great recommendation it was. I ended up extending my stay and spent 4 nights/5 days.

This was finally a chance to get outdoors and also to have some time to relax and recuperate a little. During the day I set out into the valleys and did some hiking. When I wasn’t hiking, I chilled out on the roof terrace of the hostel. There were great views looking out over the town and I spent most of my evenings there gazing out, occasionally in possession of a local beer.

I was really blown away by the scenery. Besides being stunning, it’s unlike anything you’d find in Europe or anywhere that I’d seen before. There are a series of valleys full of unusual rock formations called ‘fairy chimneys’ or ‘hoodoos’. I believe they’re the result of a volcanic region shaped by millennia of erosion. The people who’ve inhabited the area built there homes into the landscape creating caves in the rocks. You can see these everywhere. Some are quite simple and others are huge and multi- levelled. The whole region is full of them. The dwellings date back to the 4th century although they have been used by later inhabitants. You can visit an open air museum, or do what I did and wander out into the valleys and explore them for yourself.

Hot air ballooning

Cappadocia is famous for its hot air ballooning. Literally hundreds of them take off every morning as the sun rises. I hear it is spectacular to go up (sadly a little too expensive for me) but it’s equally amazing to go and watch them all rise upwards against the back drop of the unusual landscape. This does involve getting up at around 5am but is absolutely worth it. Most people in Göreme, the main town climb up to ‘sunset point’ where there are views down towards the valleys. I choose not to do this because they charge you to get up there. It’s only about 40p but I felt you should never have to pay to see a sunrise/sunset. Also, there are hordes of people up there, which for me slightly takes the edge of the magic of it all. Instead, I walked out into the valley and found my own spot. There were a few people there but the view was more interesting and you got closer to the action.

The hot air ballooning pulls in a huge number of tourists, many from China. Thankfully most tourists opt to go on tours where they’re carted around in minibuses to all the key sites and viewing points. This means that if you’re happy to explore yourself you barely run into another soul.

Cappadocia did however, for me, encapsulate much that is wrong with the new trend of ‘instagram tourism’. It seemed like many tourists had come there simply to get the perfect instagram shot of themselves with the backdrop of the hot air balloons. At 5.30am there were ladies dressed up to the nines and made up within an inch of their lives primed to get that photo. I’d just about managed to crawl out of bed spotting a Boris Johnson barnet. There were even couples there getting their wedding photos done. Much time was spent crafting the right image and then they were pretty much out of there. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard not to take photos, I took plenty myself but that wasn’t my motivation for visiting. I may be wrong but I felt many people were more interested the photo than the moment itself.

In the town there was a Turkish carpet shop that charged £8 for you to take a photo there. I guess this had happened as so many people were coming to get their photo taken for social media and never buying any carpets!

UNESCO world heritage site

Unsurprisingly the area of Cappadocia is listed with UNESCO. Whilst some of the more significant cave dwellings and stone churches are protected in the open air museum a lot of them are not. I felt tourism here was not entirely sympathetic to the integrity of the region. One of the areas in the rose/red valley had been made a playground for ATVs (quad bikes) and motorbikes. ATV tours were led out around the area with up to about 20 in a group, although there were hundreds around at times. Besides the racket they make and the dust they kick up they’ve permanently changed the landscape with all the tracks they make.

It was also sad to see the amount of litter everywhere. There were no apparent restrictions on where you could or couldn’t go and not many set paths. People clearly went out drinking and hung out in the caves. I don’t think I came across a cave that didn’t have litter in it or smell of wee!

Given the uniqueness of the place it was a shame not more is done to look after it.