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Cappadocia
Cappadocia in central Turkey is highly recommended. Imagine the Moab if it had been inhabited for 4000 years by a succession of Hittites, Christians fleeing Romans and Persians, Greeks and Turks and you have some idea.
These faerie chimneys exist in the thousands and some are still inhabited. One fellow showed me around his chimney house. More in the extension.
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on August 3, 2007 at 07:03 AM in Travels | Permalink
Comments
Great pics! I never realized those existed.
Posted by: Chris Meisenzahl at Aug 3, 2007 7:19:22 AM
WOW! They look like giant termite mounds.
Posted by: Yan Li at Aug 3, 2007 7:36:20 AM
..the scale of those is deceiving. I had an idea that it was maybe 6-12' tall...then I saw "one fellow showed me around his chimney house"...then I noticed the tree at the base. My mind still sees it at 10' tall, but now it's inhabited by tiny people with tiny trees outside.
Posted by: shawn at Aug 3, 2007 8:24:42 AM
Can you get a pizza delivered there?
Posted by: Daniel Klein at Aug 3, 2007 9:31:30 AM
One of the most amazing experiences my wife and I had in Cappadocia was during a hike through a large field of these conic structures. At one point, off the beaten track, we came across one with a ladder leaning against it. Upon climbing up about 10 or 12 feet, we entered a small, carved out room. On the wall was a very old iconic painting of the Virgin and Son. It was impossible for us to date, of course, but stylistically it was very much "pre-Renaissance", and at least roughly similar to wall paintings we had seen in well-preserved conic Churches in Goreme. There was a great deal of graffiti scratched into it--saying, I imagine, "So and so was here" in Turkish. I still have a picture of it, somewhere.
Don't miss the underground cities around Urgup, if you haven't seem them already.
Posted by: eweininger at Aug 3, 2007 9:52:46 AM
What is the size of that mound? Using the structures behind it for scale, I think it's about 8 feet tall. But the trees at the base make it look huge.
Are those miniature trees?
Some googling may be in order....
Posted by: Damon at Aug 3, 2007 10:12:01 AM
Sorry for the absence of scale. The mounds are big, people live in them. What you are seeing is windows. The trees are normal.
Posted by: Alex Tabarrok at Aug 3, 2007 10:23:24 AM
Thanks for the answer.
Don't apologize, though. I think it's a great photo for precisely that reason.
Posted by: Damon at Aug 3, 2007 10:31:44 AM
How do people come down from the top?
Posted by: Yan Li at Aug 3, 2007 12:31:42 PM
I can't believe I'm the first one to post this bit from The Simpsons:
Cecil: When that pie hit your face, I saw my dreams explode in a burst
of cream and crust. But I suppose I should thank you. After
all, it lead me to my true calling.
Bob: Cecil, no civilization in history has ever considered chief
hydrological engineer a calling.
[Cecil clears his throat meaningfully]
Yes, yes, the Cappadocians, fine
Posted by: David J. Balan at Aug 3, 2007 2:41:50 PM
"Oh, all right. The Cappadocians!"
Posted by: Teller at Aug 3, 2007 6:14:50 PM
Yan,
If I am not mistaken, these structures are honeycombed- there are stairwells inside.
David J. Balan,
Nice citation!
Posted by: Yancey Ward at Aug 4, 2007 1:20:16 PM
That's way up, but as long as the elevator is working...
Posted by: Alan Brown at Aug 6, 2007 2:39:43 PM
I'm sorry but that photo look horribly fake and photoshopped. Erm.... by default I have to contend that it can't be real. The buildings in the background are WAY too big for that thing to be like 200 feet tall with people living in it.
Posted by: bruce at Aug 7, 2007 11:24:45 PM
I agree with Bruce. I googled for "Cappadocia", then clicked Google's 'Images' link, and found pictures to confirm the large size of the "faerie chimneys." But how to explain the house in the background? Either (a) the foreground is a sand castle built like a chimney rock, or is a miniature chimney rock sculpted to look like a larger one, or (b) the photo is a composite. Where'd you get this picture, Alex?
Posted by: NeedleFactory at Aug 9, 2007 8:21:05 PM
Guys, I was there. I took the photo. There is no conspiracy.
Posted by: Alex Tabarrok at Aug 17, 2007 2:17:17 PM
Guys, there is no conspiracy. Everything is real in Cappadocia. Why don't you plan a trip to Cappadocia? To see the reality. I am fun of Cappadocia. You cannot imagine without seeing the region. If you need any help about planning a trip you can send me an e-mail.
Ayzen Erenel (mrs)
Istanbul, Turkey
aerenel@eur.ko.com
Posted by: Ayzen Erenel at Sep 18, 2007 3:13:08 PM
I've been there (2006). It is amazing and I have about 150 photos to document it!!! I can't believe I had never heard about it before. I was in Ankara working and all my friends there told me I had to see it and that it is "other worldly." It is spectacular!! I stayed in one of the "cave" hotels. I visited a "cave" ceramic factory and a real "cave" home of one of the locals. Cappadocia is a truly awesome experience. I've also been to Machu Picchu and I put Cappadocia right up on the same scale with that!
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Posted by: 无缝钢管 at Nov 13, 2007 8:54:15 PM
You can have further information about Cappadocia at http://www.goreme.com/cappadocia.php
Posted by: Mustafa at Jan 5, 2008 6:14:25 PM
You can have further information about Cappadocia at http://www.goreme.com/cappadocia.php
Posted by: Mustafa at Jan 5, 2008 6:16:58 PM
Posted by: 翻译公司 at Feb 13, 2008 10:03:08 AM
