We left Istanbul on a night bus (I got very little sleep) for Cappadocia where we enjoyed a 2 day guided tour. We spent a day exploring the cave houses in the sand stone piles and learning about the history of the people who lived there at one time. Cappadocia is one of the strangest landscapes I have ever seen and it does look like a different planet. A scene from the original Star Wars Movie was filmed on location here. The giant piles of sand stone and basalt were formed by the eruption of volcanoes millions of years ago. When the volcanoes around the area erupted around 30 million years ago they first spewed ash (Tuff) around 100 meters deep. After spraying ash for days possibly even years the volcanoes started to spread a volcanic rock, basalt. The basalt blanketed the tuff creating a kind of shield. Cracks in the basalt layer were dug into by wind and rain creating piles of tuff with basalt on top as a cap. The piles that have basalt on top will last around 1000 years while the ones without caps will last around 100 because the basalt acts like an umbrella protecting the very soft tuff. We visited an underground city in the area that has 8 floors all carved and built by the Hittites and the Christians centuries ago. The people that lived there were in hiding from enemies. The Hittites built 5 floors and the Christians who came after them built the next 3. The soft earth was tuff making it much easier to dig in. 20,000 people at one time lived underground in the city we visited along with their animals. There are 36 similar cities in the area. On the 4th floor the city we visited had a tunnel leading to another entire city. There were entire rooms dedicated to making wine, where people would have stomped on the grapes, turning it into juice where it then would then flow through a whole into a trough. The people who lived in these cities would have only ventured out only at night if ever, as well they would have only lit fires at night so that the smoke would not give them away. There were airshafts to allow fresh air in and there were wells within. The tunnels linking rooms were very low and narrow and even my short mother had to bend low to move through the passes. It was a crazy maze of passages and we were lucky to have our guide or we would have easily been lost. According to our guide it was purposely confusing so that invaders would loose their way also. Regularly within the maze of tunnels there were millstones to roll and block the passage if invaders did ever make it in. These stones had holes in them so that spears could be pushed through to stab an invader easily from the inside. After exploring the caves and underground city we went and retired to our own cave hotel in the town of Urgup. It was the first time I have slept in a cave. We had a good sleep and woke up early the next day to go to visit a beautiful pottery workshop. I loved watching all the people as they worked painting the bowls, plates, cups and ornaments. The designs were incredibly intricate.There is a specific traditional shaped piece of pottery that is a kind of goblet used for holding wine for the sun god. The jug is like a doughnut with a hole in the middle. The people who used these jugs would put the goblet in a certain position where the sun could shine through the hole in the middle and bless the wine.
The following day we made our way on another horrid night bus to Pammukale with some newly made friends, Catherine and her mother Sunny from New York. Pammukale is a hot spring that runs down a hillside forming terraces by leaving deposits of limestone. White calcium carbonate has built up a shelf like snow packed winter landscape. It was so breathtaking it is hard to describe in words. We took of our shoes and walked up. The higher we got the warmer the water was (and my toes) It was probably the most magical place we have been on our trip. Pammukale means Cotton Castle in English. The Romans built a settlement here and we went for a swim in what was possibly a sacred pool associated with the temple of Apollo. The pool was naturally formed by an earthquake. The water was bath temperature, maybe even warmer. The bottom of the pool was strewn with fragments of big Roman marble columns and there was weeds floating in the water. Warm water was gushing from spouts at the sides of the pool and I was carful not to swallow any. There was greenery along the sides of the pool,moss and ferns, and It looked like there would be flowers and blossoms in the summer. It was very nice and I was sad when it was time to get out. After getting dry we went on a long walk through the Roman ruins of a big amphitheater, an old street and many, many graves in the cemetery. We made our way to Ephesus and explored the House of the Blessed Virgin. According to the bible Mary spent her last years in Ephesus and there is a shrine where both Muslims and Christians visit. We walked through yet more Roman ruins and came to the library of Celsus built in 114-117 AD by Consul Gaius Julius Aquila for his father.It is in very good shape after being damaged by the Goths and then by an earthquake in the year 1000. The library is a tall building with statues of Sophia (which means wisdom), Arete (meaning virtue) Ennoia ,(meaning intellect) and Episteme (knowledge). We next stumbled upon the theatre which was carved into the side of Mount Pion during the Hellenistic period and was later renovated by the Romans. The theater was enormous and is approximately 300 meters across.
We left Ephesus and having enjoyed our time in Turkey thoroughly, we took a boat to Greece. We spent our Greece Easter on the beautiful island of Patmos where we rode around on scooters. We spent our first night joining a Easter procession where we got candles from the church and attempted to light them but it was to windy. We walked without candles. There were to churches each with a procession that met up, we did a loop around the town stopped for the priests to sing and ended up back at the church. On the third night there was traditional red hardboiled eggs and special Patmos pies. There was dancing, drinks and music. We listened all night to the Greek Music, which in some ways is similar to Irish fiddle. We watched the wonderful folk dancing and at one point my mother and I summed up enough courage to briefly join the dancers on stage, the steps are certainly more complicated then they look!
We have had a wonderful week.
Your student,
Mia
