Cappadocia

And then came Cappadocia— everything and even more than we expected. All the pictures that I’ve ever seen do not do it justice, nor does seeing it without understanding just what you are looking at. We’ve managed to visit everyplace on our Turkey list, but leaving Cappadocia till the last was a very good idea because it is so different than any place I’ve ever seen and is what will stick in our memory the longest. If you have never heard of this place, let me give you an idea, along with pictures, about what makes this area special. It can be summed up with 2 words “cave homes”. First, Cappadocia describes a large region in central Turkey, but what put this place on the map is a much smaller area  in the middle  known as Little Cappadocia. This is a valley and within this valley are 5 small towns: Felue, Ortahiser, Goreme, the hometown of Little Cappadocia, Urgup, and Avenos.  Throughout the valley and winding around these towns are at least 80k caves where people live or lived. Within the rocks, the homes cover multiple floors, have multiple rooms and are connected by tunnels and stairs. The largest inhabited rock has 8 floors. Many of the caves are still privately owned, some are empty and now owned by the government, and many are hotels.

The caves have actual addresses , and almost all have the modern technology we have in our houses— electricity, sewage, running water, and WiFi, with the added benefit of constant year round temperature of around 70F. No need for heat or air conditioning. The rocks come in many different shapes and are located in neighborhood’s, some with residences and some without. We were fortunate to have a guide who lived in this area her whole life. Her grandparents owned their own cave so she was able to give us firsthand information on how and why over 20,000 people choose caves as their homes. 

 In addition to a first rate guide, who was a friend by the second day, we stayed in a cave hotel. Different from any hotel we have ever seen, it was interesting because there were several rooms on many levels, connected by tunnels and stairs and carved out of the rock. The levels weren’t even like floors in a regular hotel, and the elevator was not able to give access to all levels. In fact to get to reception, the bistro, the spa, and the restaurant always involved stairs in addition to the elevator. Here are pictures, and I know your first question will be, “ how do they get up to the entrance?” The answer is that the holes you are looking at aren’t the entrance to the houses. The entrances are located at ground level and the residents enter there and traverse tunnels and stairs to get to their individual homes. 

 

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In the Utopia Cave Hotel