regarding dress code - I dress down when I travel - and there was absolutely nothing attractive about me on this trip. I am there to shoot - so I packed few clothes and lots of gear. Jeans T shirts and rain jacket. Trust me - I think the men will nail a door if they thought it was female.
I did the trip on $2000, flights included - but I didnt eat much. SOUP and flat bread mostly.
The chimneys usually had pigeon houses in the top section. (old style wifi I think
)
Volcanic eruptions created this surreal moonscape: the lava flows formed tuff rock, which wind and rain sculpted into sinuous valleys with curvy cliff faces and pointy fairy chimneys. Cappadocians chiselled homes in the soft rock, paving the way for cave-dwelling hippies and today’s boutique fairy-chimney hotels
They are shaped like pointy hats (and some shaped like a phallus) Some are mountains - and same principles apply. The local Christians were persecuted, first by the Romans and then raiding Muslims, and they often had to hide from hostile forces. When they heard hoof beats, they would abandon the cave churches and go underground - quite literally. Beneath Cappadocia’s rock formations is a network of subterranean cities, which housed up to 10,000 people each. The largest discovered are almost ten levels deep, with narrow passages connecting the floors like hamster tunnels.
Touring the cities, you pass stables with handles used to tether the animals, churches with altars and baptism pools, walls with air circulation holes, granaries with grindstones and blackened kitchens with ovens. The ventilation shafts were disguised as wells, and chunky rolling-stone doors served as last lines of defence. Not many artefacts remain - the inhabitants took their possessions when they returned to the surface - but the cities give a sense of life continuing in tough conditions.
Actually - looking back - I think my images suck and really didnt do the place justice
140316 Cappadocia 143 by
elsa hoffmann, on Flickr
140316 Cappadocia 084 by
elsa hoffmann, on Flickr
