Underground cities and church caves

We left Istanbul and headed out towards Ankara, southeast and a 6 hour drive. On the way we saw mile after mile of toppled and vacant apartment buildings, abandoned after the earthquake. There is one town that was built on the water- completely on landfill. It simply sunk and disappeared into the sea. Our guide, who is a scuba diver, was sent in to try and retrieve bodies. They pulled a few up, but then gave up because there was a leak in an oil refinery and it was too dangerous for the divers. They left the bodies down there, and some come to the surface every once in a while.

Later, we passed still more miles of abandoned apartments, but these were different. These were apartment developments that were started and temporarily abandoned until the developers can get some more money to finish them. Inflation is 100% here and sometimes they just run out of money. THere were people living in one building, surrounded by 20 other vacant ones. Looked like Chernoble or something.

We drove into the interior and back into history. The oldest remains outside of Africa are found here. Paleolithic remnants. We saw ruins of the Hittites from 4,000 years ago-carvings in rocks and the remains of a big temple. Went to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara (formally known as Angora, home to hairy goats.)

Next to Cappadocia, a very important early Christian site. There was a large Christian community here by the end of the 2nd Century. Since they were persecuted, they used the fish symbol as a secret way to communicate that they were Christian. (I have heard that they carve a fish symbol on the wall of the building, pointing the direction of the church, so that people who recognized the symbol would know where to go.)

The landscape here is other-worldly. Tens of thousands of years ago a volcano erupted. Over the years rain washed away the Tufa - soft volcanic rock, so that all that remains are tall cone phallic shaped mounds. Some of them have big boulders perched on top (since the boulders weren`t washed away.) These are called Fairy Chimneys.

Several mountain shaped formations remained, and in these the people carved out caves. They used obsidian to carve their homes -- they would carve a few rooms, then when they had another child would add another room.

In Goreme there is a community of several Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, carved out of the rock. But these are not just caves - they are carved inside with domes, pillars, alters, tombs. They looked like a mineature Blue Mosque in a cave! They all have elaborate frescoes despicting scenes from the New Testament. It is just unbelievable!!! I cant even begin to describe it so I will just have to show you the pictures later.

Also in the area is another incredible site - the UNDERGROUND cities. To protect themselves from wave after wave of invaders, the people dug down 240 feet into the Tufa - 8 stories - and acres wide. When the invaders came the people lived underground for months. There was a 9-mile-long tunnel connecting two of these underground cities. There were ventilation shafts, wineries, bathrooms, and so on. We walked, duck-like into the tunnels sloping down, down, down into the underground city. Again, I can`t even begin to describe it - you`ll just have to come see this for yourselves!