I'm Goreme to Kapadokya

A intense sun welcomes the day, showering light across a strange plateau. Below is a valley of ethereal structures, peculiar in shape and function, still hiding from the morning. The sun bathes a couple of hundred hot air balloons in strawberry and tangerine colors. Each balloon filled with a handful of tourists attempting to get the best seat in the house. Their purpose? To capture this dazzling scene sitting in front of me. As the sun begins to peer into the valley, the first conical rock structure, or fairy chimney as the locals call it, begins to illuminate. Its pristine sandy brown sides washed in the early light. Soon the valley is glowing in the morning rays, presenting the magic that brings thousands of visitors a year to this part of Turkey.

Cappadocia (Kapadokya) is a fascinating middle region of Turkey. It teeters precariously close to the arid region of the middle east and its weather is quick to remind you of this. In May, the sun is intense during the day. The night time temperatures drop to barely tolerable without a jacket. Its land is a close approximation to the canyons of the American West, except for the odd landscape that defines this region.

The off-white sand that covers the area is not actually sand. The whole region has been in a millennia bout of volcanic activity. In the ancient past, a whole time period was punctuated by thousands of years of volcanic ash raining down into this valley. As the water came, the soft ash layers quickly eroded away. The rivers created the valleys. The rains carved away the rock to create the iconic fairy chimneys. The softness of the stone still remains. Heavy rains that mark the change in seasons take the stone back a few millimeters. This life cycle is both redefining the region and erasing its history, little by little.

During the 300s, Christianity was spreading by way of the silk road. It was not freely practiced, and therefore confined to underground worship. Cappadocia offered an easily sculpted hideaway for the new religion's practice, following the building habits of ancient people before them. In the Ihlara Valley, an ancient river has cut a swath of fertile land, with its own, more temperate, climate. It's last residents were the Christians still hiding from the Empires that persecuted them. Within the steep canyon walls, pocked with deliberate holes and tunnels, is a secret city of Ancient Christianity. Most now exposed from sheering cliff faces that failed to resist erosion of water.

It's not just the Ilhara Valley that hides these deteriorating windows to the past. This is what defines Cappadocia. The land is filled with underground cities, carved mountains, painted caves. Those fairy chimneys? Most were at one point carved into to create villages and homes. Some clusters are the remains of villages and towns.

To those with a sense of exploration outside of guided tours, the land offers amazement. The valleys are lightly protected and free to explore. Its canyon diving. It's history exploration. Its one of those rare facets of ancient history that hangs on a precipice of swift destruction as time ages the land. An experience that everyone should live. An experience that is quickly crumbing away.