Cappadocia

Another epistolary post.

Today Jena and I explored a little of Cappadocia. It's a big area, kind of a region, containing a few towns that's known for its houses and underground cities that are carved into the rocks. Somewhere around 1900 years ago, some of the first Christians hid in the area because of persecution from the Romans, I believe. Now the place is totally touristy, kind of like Sedona, if it had ancient history sites everywhere you look. There are lots of "cave" hotels, for instance, that you can stay in. They're built into rocky mountain sides.

To me, the place looks like Bryce Canyon in Utah, although I don't think I've ever been there. The colors here are less spectacular, though. Put another way, it's kind of like the Valley of the Goblins in Goblin Valley, but many of the goblins have been hollowed out for living.

In any case, I thought of you two today because Jena and I stumbled into this place that reminded me a lot of the Fire Furnace in Arches because you couldn't really see where you were going--there were all these waves of rocks and ups and downs and trees and whatnot. There was a mess of narrow trails that went every which way.

Most interesting and scary was this human-made tunnel that went below and through all the rock formations. At times, it was completely black, and since I didn't have a flashlight, I had to use my camera, which produced an eerie orange light for me for a few seconds before the flash went off. At other times there were small holes in the roof that reached to the surface and let some light in. I didn't explore the whole thing because a) I was afraid of the pitch black sections when I could only see so far and so much with my camera, b) I was worried I might trip in the darkness and smack my head, thus leaving Jena with no idea where I was, and c) I had no idea where I'd pop out at times. There were some places where the tunnel was open to a hole above, but the floor of the tunnel was ten feet down or so. What would have really improved the experience would have been a flashlight, so maybe I can go back and do that another day. In fact, I think Jena and I are going back to Cappadocia tomorrow (we have rented a car). We may return to the place we were, but we may just dive into to another area.