We are right an among the amazing structures that Cappadocia is famous for. And you wonder how such a thing could come about. We heard that a good start is to think of the whole area being covered by the lava from the volcanic eruptions from Mount Ericyes and Mount Hasan three million years ago. Covered so that all the valleys are filled. Over time, wind and weather eroded the soft volcanic rock to the cones and pillars seen today.

Our first stop was the Goreme Open Air Museum. This is a large site, enclosing an area that includes many churches in the cone structures. Interestingly, these churches were built by Christians, led by St Basil of Caesarea, who gathered communities and advanced early Christian theology. The churches contain the remains of frescoes that are stylistically attractive, but in most cases not a lot remains.. Photography is not allowed inside theses churches, so I only have a postcard with an image.
 


The museum is visited by crowds of people on bus tours, so it is not a place to linger. It is interesting in that Christian community was set up here, and that churches and houses were made in these cliffs. For us, lucky to have a car where so much of this type of scenery is available without the crowds, the museum was just a starting point. . 

We drove to Cavusin, a small quiet town where we stopped for an omelette lunch. The viewing point high above the town gave a great view to the surrounding area. And jus like in China, when you get to the top there is a cafe so you can have a sit and a tea. Only in Turkey there is period reproduction furniture to sit on. 

 
In Avanos we walked by the river and saw a mosque with a shiny silver roof - we have now seen a number of shiny new mosques, some in quite small towns. I wondered about this, and after a search found that 17,000 new mosques have been built in the last 10 years. The number of schools has remained the same, and the premier has been accused of trying to 're-Islamisize' the nation.

We have also been surprised at the number of very large new homes in the country. Don' t know why this is, maybe there is quite some wealth here.

On the way home we drove via Urgup, and stopped at a number of 'viewing points' with views of the surrounding areas. An interesting day.