Cappadocıa

Cappadocia
see all photos »

Initially we spent a few days in the Ilhara valley, sleeping on the side of a river next to the small village of Selime. As we were new to the area, and it being so impoverished we felt a little unsure of our safety, we parked next to a restaurant, as the owner allowed said us to stay for free. But, as we discovered, it is extremely safe in this region. We were introduced to the restaurateur’s english speaking cousin, Sadir, who invited us into his rural home to dine with his wife, three children, and extremely deformed brother (half a man, about 2 feet long, with limbs in all the wrong places, and an eerily high pitched voice, but with a smile from ear-to-ear). The family were poor, and I mean dirt-poor. They lived in conditions not unlike South African black people living in squatter camps. Their village was a ramshackled has-been, hoping for tourism to take off. Mud bricks or rocks to form the walls, no in-door toilets or hot water, fires in portable boilers for heating and cooking, and chickens everywhere. Like most Turkish, they were extremely hospitable, to the point of embarrassment. I was struck by Rianna, Sadir’s wife. In my naive preconceptions, the woman of a Muslim house, would be somehow oppressed, not speaking outwardly, existing on the periphery, secondary to the man. But how wrong was I? She graciously accepted, enthusiastically maintained, and proudly lived a Muslim lifestyle, passionately believing and morally attaining her pious existence. And yet her eyes were alive with cheekiness, her personality bubbled forth, and in many ways, she dominated the household. Sadly her english was weak resulting in limited communication.

Cold in the van
see all photos »

One night, whilst chatting to Sadir over a beer, I asked: “Sadir, I thought that drinking alcohol was taboo for Muslims?” “Yes”, he replied, “My wife doesn’t drink, and I shouldn’t really. The Quran prohibits it. But I don’t follow Islam too well. My wife much more devout. She practices very strong. She is not happy if I drinking alcohol. I really should practice more regularly”, Sadir remarked, with an air of guilt. “The Muslim lifestyle is such a noble path, with high morals, teaching kindness, goodness, hospitality, and love. And Islamic people are so clean.”

see all photos »

Being absorbed in this Muslim culture I have become to appreciate what Sadir meant. The people of Turkey are extremely hospitable. They are kind and honest and very polite. We have met a few ‘curious Georges’, peering at us, or coming over to investigate the strange sight of a bearded white man and a dreadlocked blonde, but when they come, its just to say hello, welcome us to the village, to ask which country we are from, and more often than not, to offer us a Çay (tea, pronounced Chai). The tea here is served black in a small hour-glass shaped glass, usually drunk with loads of sugar, though we decline this and slip the sugar in our pockets for later consumption. Consequently, with all this tea being offered, the majority of our ‘meaningful’ interactions with the locals have been over a cuppa. We have had tea with sock salesmen, with petrol attendants, with shoe-makers, and the list goes on. Their hospitality is ingrained in their culture, and this makes it extremely comfortable to travel here.

Neil's drawing of the region
see all photos »

And I realized what Sadir meant about the Muslims being so clean too. The whole country is spotless, and there is hardly any litter anywhere. Also, they clean their bodies very often during the day. The Mosques, of which there are many, come alive with sound at various intervals during the day. Five times per day, if I’m not mistaken, sometimes starting as early as 4am! Loud speakers attached to their bellow out the sounds of singing, calling for the people to pray, to come to the Mosque, or to practice another form of worship. One such way is to clean the body, and there are a number of ‘cleaning stations’ usually situated just outside the Mosques. Rows of seats in front of taps, ornately decorated, are opened by their users, who ritually clean their hands and face, then shoes, followed by taking off their shoes and cleaning their feet. This practice is carried out a number of times during the day, so yes, they are clean.

Sadir's Family
see all photos »

Anyway, as I was saying, we were staying in the Ilhara valley. We hiked through the valley on one day, a 16km scramble, following the contours of the river bank, exploring numerous caves and churches. After that we headed for Goreme, where we spent another week exploring the region, cycling and hiking through the lunar-landscape.

The mysterious shapes and volcanic rock formations, imprints itself on the mind, and is what makes Cappadocia famous. The impressive topography of the landscape is pimpled with towering cones of rock aptly named “Fairy Chimneys”. And inside these so called Fairy Chimneys, for hundreds of years, inhabitants have been living in self-carved caves, that form intricate labyrinths, some of which span multiple stories, containing not only a variety of multi-purpose rooms and pigeon dwellings (pigeons used for sending mail), but also impressive Christian churches. Walking amongst these dwellings, some of which are still inhabited, in this surreal environment, is like wandering through a fairytale. Changing shapes and colours dissolve past the eye as the day wears on, shadows appear and disappear, contrasts change. The light plays tricks, shades of rock begin as brown, then absorb blue, reflect purple, which merges into crimson pinks and reds.

Tour guides, sort of
see all photos »

The history of this curious region is equally intriguing. The earliest known settlers were the Hatti, who’s civilization was conquered by the Hittites around 2000BC. The culture that emerged from this fusion was rich and varied and the social norms, values, and their law system reflected extreme humanitarian qualities for its time. Torture and mutilation of prisoners, a common practice back then, was unknown, incest was abolished, and the Hittite King was ‘first among equals’ rather than an absolutist monarch. “Whoever commits evil against his brothers and sisters answers for it with the royal head. Call the assembly, and if the things come to a decision he shall pay with his head”, was the Monarchic law. After 1200BC, at the fall of the Hittite Empire, at different times, the region came under the rule of varying neighbouring powers and kingdoms, until the middle of sixth century BC when the Lydian King Croesus was defeated by the Persian under Cyrus the Great.

Cappadocia by night
see all photos »

Cappadocia was saved from Perian rule by Alexander the Great in 333BC, and enjoyed independence until shortly after Christ, when it became a Roman province. Its independence remained somewhat untouched however, since the Roman’s only real interest was in ensuring the roads were kept open for trade routes. The locals existed for centuries, in much the same way that they do now, in cave dwellings carved from the rock, and farming the land in the valleys. This relative neglect of the region, combined with it being the thoroughfare of important trade-routes, meant that a number of faiths, creeds, and philosophies were allowed to flourish. One of these was Christianity, introduced in the first century by Saint Paul. Taking refuge from the increasingly frequent attacks by Arab raiders, the new Christian communities took refuge in the hills, carving out dwellings and churches for their entire communities. (Increasingly, in recent year however, crumbling rocks have caused many families to escape the fairytale existence in the rocks and live in government subsidised stone houses. This has also led, in certain parts, to the growth of the tourist industry, as foreigners now come in by the tour bus load to ogle at the inhabitance of the past.)

Night scene
see all photos »

In the eleventh century, the Selcuk Turkish tribes arrived from the East. Which incidentally reminds me of a recent conversation I had with a young local lad, who was studying English and linguistics, and consequently had a good command of the Queen’s tongue. “You are about to marry a Japanese lady?”, I asked, surprised. “How did you meet her?” “Well”, he explained, “the Turkish language, you see, is not that dissimilar to Japanese. The Turkish nomadic tribes, thousands of years ago, lived in the far-east, and their language had originated from the same sources as modern Japanese. Thus, some Turks nowadays, especially those in touristy areas like me, find themselves falling in love with Japanese tourists, learning the language, and emigrating.” “Hmmm”, I probed him further, “so where does the name Turkey come from?” The tribes that originally populated this area, many of whom lived in the caves around Cappadocia since the eleventh century, were nomadic Selcuk Turks. They remained here for centuries, warming quickly to the solitude and safety of the caves, but were conquered by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, and then by the mighty Ottoman Empire in the fourteenth. The Ottoman Empire snowballed into one of the world’s largest, most powerful, and longest-lasting imperial states. Soon after World War 1, owing to the demonic energy and vision of Kemal Ataturk, Turkey gained its independence. But, as an ally of Russia during the war, the British had referred to the people of the region as Turkeys, used as an insult to their enemies. Humorously, the name stuck.

The old village in the rocks
see all photos »

The challenge, for us, living in Cappadocia has been the cold. The temperatures in the North, near Istanbul, were around 15° to 20° Celsius. had dropped to below freezing, and coming not equipped for such onslaught, living in the van, we were forced to purchase a variety of woollen garments from a nearby market, beanies, gloves, and long-johns. Needless to say, at night, anyone knocking on the van would be greeted by two maniacal sheep wearing stripy hats and playing cards! But these woollen fleeces are doing their job just dandy. Monetary transactions are always exciting, as it is never known what the real price is. In the markets one is expected to haggle, but by how much? It depends on the type of market it seems, and in tourist markets, the price might drop by as much as 40%, whereas in local markets, a mere 10% off the quoted price seems sufficient. But even in the shops the prices aren’t always fixed. If for example, a bag of chips says ‘2,50 Lira’ on the label, but on empting the contents of change into your hand, you find only 2,10 Lira, the shopkeeper inevitably waddles his head from side to side and mumbles “Tamam”, indicating that it is sufficient. If you don’t appear to have anywhere near enough money, its likely that your goods could become a gift anyway. It seems that one of the virtues, more than making profit as in the capitalist world, is being kind and making a good impression!