Cappadocia - a photo essay

At the centre of Turkey lies Cappadocia, a UNESCO protected area which is famous for its incredible rock formations. We thought we’d try something new with this post and write it in the style of a photo essay.

The six of us arrived in Cappadocia off an overnight bus from the Lycian Coast.

Making up for a lack of sleep, we started the day with a strong Turkish coffee.

After checking into our hostel we set off to explore Pigeon Valley.

Climbing out of the valley gave us great views back towards Goreme where we were staying.

It felt like a playground for adults - we enjoyed exploring the caves and “fairy chimneys”.

The following day we checked out another couple of nearby valleys.

The shapes and colours of the landscape are bizarre and very striking.

The rock formations are made of layers of volcanic rock. The landscape, consisting mostly of a soft rock made from volcanic ash, erodes away over time. Deposits of hard basalt protect the patch of earth underneath from erosion, creating distinctive columns and mounds.

Having climbed to the top of a tall ridge we got a great view (the perfect place for a melodramatic photo).

That night, everyone from the hostel went out to a cave restaurant. The owners were super friendly and kept plying us with free food and drinks.

It was freezing cold for our whole stay in Cappadocia, but the following day was the coldest by far. We had arranged a tour for the day to see some of the sights further afield.

Unfortunately the weather made us a bit miserable and sometimes we just felt like getting back to the warm(ish) van.

We visited a monastery carved from the rock and an underground city used to hold up against sieges.

The weather cleared up a bit on our last day in Cappadocia, so we set off again, this time to Love Valley.

Wonder why they call it Love Valley?

Because of the bad weather, we missed out on seeing one of Cappadocia’s iconic sights – hot air balloons taking off in the early morning. Here’s a photo of what we missed.

Despite the cold, Cappadocia was an amazing place to see. It was also really fun travelling with the same group of people for a week. But now everyone was heading their separate ways. As for us, we caught an evening flight to Istanbul - our last stop in Turkey.

Comments from WordPress

• Gina 2012-12-04T17:19:48Z

  I would have loved to go to Cappadocia, but was in Turkey in February so didn’t think it was the best idea! I hope you’re loving Istanbul— if you’re still there, definitely get the ice cream at Mado!

Written by Craig Drayton and Sally Robertson