Cappadocia--Part 2

Weather was sunny and warm in Cappadocia. Our days were also filled with trekking and visiting a couple of manufacturing stores.

Among our fellow travellers were quite a few South Koreans. Jeongsoo Park is a professor in theology in Korea. 

We hiked a couple of short treks—(1) through a treed valley along a meandering river, and
(2 ) through a more desert-like canyon and trail in which the mountains changed from white to pink to red. This hike ended in an old Christian village.  The people used to live in the caves on the cliff face; however, when the caves started collapsing, they were forced to move into free standing homes.

a lone goat

Relaxing with tea

Caves up high

Pigeons roosts--the people used to collect the pigeon droppings for fertilizer.

``Here we go around the mulberry bush``

Dried mulberry fruit for snacking

Cave walks

Bryan pretending to camp out all night

After a climb to the top, a cup of tea is restful.

We visited a pottery making shop and a carpet weaving shop. Both these occupations require steady hands and good eyesight, and a lot of patience as the designs are intricate and use a lot of different colors.  The carpet shops have set up a co-operative with the local women so that these women can weave the carpets in their own homes.  They weave the killms--a more utilitarian carpet which still has character.

This master was showing us how they make the circle part of a special wine decanter.

Bryan showing us how difficult it is to make pottery.

Adding color to the plate

Drawing the design on the vase

Silk worms--their cocoons are used to make the silk thread for silk carpets.

The room where the ladies weave the carpets.  As the work is very intricate, they have to take long breaks for their fingers, eyes, and mind.

When selling a carpet, they offer tea or coffee to the potential buyer as a welcome.   The sellers then throw lots of rugs on floor for the buyer to look at it.  The sellers are reluctant to give a price.

Because of the prevalence of gravel and clay, this area has a lot of brick manufacturers.  Therefore, most of the homes and commercial buildings are constructed of brick.

Everywhere, there are groups of men playing backgammon.  It is a favorite pastime for the people in Turkey.

Aladdin's lamp for sale

The camels we see in Turkey have two humps and have thicker hair.

Enjoying a grandfather fix.

We will move onto the next part of our journey to southeastern Turkey—statues on Mount Nemrut, mosaics, a Roman bridge, and whatever else our guide will show us.

Cappadocia

11-hour overnight bus trip to Urgup in the Cappadocia area

Urgup

Want to move to Turkey?

Restaurant named after the owners' dog

Great atmosphere and good food

Great view from top of this mountain

Visited two underground cave cities—Derinkuyu and Kaymakli—used for temporary protection from enemies, volcanoes, severe weather.  They moved their animals to the first floor to protect them, as well.  The people would stay in these caves for only two or three months.  These underground cities were connected by tunnels so that if one city got overtaken by an enemy, they could travel to some other cave.  Some of the tunneling was narrow and shorter so that the enemy with their armor could not follow the people.

must often bend over to move through the tunnels

Door can only be moved from the inside. The hole enabled them to use arrows or spears 

to defend the rest of the cave from the enemy. 

Basalt door unlike surrounding material  larger than tunnels. They do not know how it got in the caves.

The rest of the pictures of me lifting the door into place were erased by mistake 

Toured the famous fairy chimneys of Cappadocia--Tufa (volcanic ash) topped stone formations formed from wind and rain erosion.  Early peoples—Hittites, Christians—being persecuted in their homelands found these tall stone formations, and carved homes, churches, monasteries, etc. in them. 

Rock Castle

They had to fence the camel because so many people tried to ride it.

Table and benches in the dining area. Sweeping underneath is not required.

All frescoes were vandalized

We were blessed with great weather while in Cappadocia.  Our adventure continues with more warm weather and lots more to see.

Ataturk

Everywhere we go; there are pictures of a man hanging in restaurants, and woven into rugs. His name was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938). In order to find out more, I picked up a book about him in a used book store. When I read the book, I found him described as the founder of modern Turkey.

Turkey was a declining part of the Ottoman Empire going into the First World War, and Turkey sided with Germany during World War I. After the war, the Europeans--English, French, Greeks, and Italians--were each given an area to oversee. When the divisions had gone too far in the eyes of some Turkish nationalists, the nationalists formed the Turkish National Movement headed by an army officer, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The Greeks, backed by the British, invaded the heartland of Turkey. The Turkish National Movement under Kemal’s guidance defeated the Greeks. Eventually, Kemal became the president of Turkey, and proceeded to established modern Turkey.

The people of the country were mostly uneducated peasants. Within his life time, he changed it into the modern Turkey it is today. Some of the things he did were: separated the church and the state; founded universities; made primary education universal; encouraged the study of English; adopted the Latin characters for the alphabet, the Gregorian calendar, and the metric system; emancipated women; abolished polygamy; introduced western civil, commercial, and criminal codes; improved the justice system, and enacted prison reform; made the peasants landowners; modernized the labour laws; adopted western social customs and dress; encouraged sport; suppressed the use of drugs; improved and increased the number of health centers. He also established museums, picture galleries, and encouraged concerts of classical music.

Due to Ataturk’s contributions, Turkey is a democracy built on a solid foundation.  Turkey is a clean country, has modern highways and infrastructure, and has a tolerance for other religious and ethnic minorities. The population is 94% Muslim, 3% Christian, and the remainder is Jewish.  He is revered by the Turkish people.