I See Red: The Cappadocia Red Tour

The weird rock world of Zelve Open Air Museum

Tourists who come up to Cappadocia generally have three options for organized tourism fun:  (1) hot air balloon ride; (2) the Red Tour; and (3) the Green Tour. I have three days in Cappadocia. This is the second day. For today, I elected the Red Tour.

First stop: the Paşabağlari Ören Yeri Giris, or the Paşabağlari Open Air Museum.

This was a center of monastic culture during the pre-Ottoman Byzantine era. In fact, the name means "Valley of the Monks."

These were hermit monks. Living atop a rock in isolation.

This is a rock-hewn church.

There still were very tiny fragments of the frescoes painted within. Time and sun and rain have washed nearly all of the frescoes.

We in the desert southwestern USA would call these rock formations "hoodoos," but out here in Cappadocia, they give them a much more evocative name: fairy chimneys.

You can climb up the rocks for better views:

Or for that perfect Cappadocia selfie.

Well, I guess it's "technically" not a selfie if another tourist took my picture of me.

 

Now, this is a selfie:

What's on my mind? Probably weighing the pros and cons of living life atop a rock in Byzantine Cappadoccia. Pros? Splendid isolation and a stress-free life. Cons? Lack of central heating in a land with brutal winters.

The second stop (of six) on the Red Tour was, for me, the highlight of the day: the Zelve Açık Hava Müzesi, or Zelve Open Air Museum.

 

This was a functioning community starting in the mid-5th Century, which dates it back to right around the time that the Roman Empire was being Christianized. This was a food storage/food preparation area:

Hence the grindstone:

The population here peaked at around 10,000, which, for its day, in these sorts of living conditions (rock-hewn caves) (I just remembered the word "hewn" and realized that is the right word for all of the caves in Cappadocia carved out of rock faces).

I'm not sure if this was the upscale part of the city, although I'm guessing that all of the neighborhood was the upscale part of the neighborhood, seeing that all of the homes came with fantastic views.

This was an unfurnished apartment:

But this is the view from said unfurnished apartment.

That is a view demanding to be monetized.

The Brits would call these "flats," which is ironic seeing that this landscape is anything but flat.

Tourist alert:

At this point, I had kind of separated from my group and was wondering the rock formations as a solo traveler. But the designated time for meeting back with the tour guide to get whisked away via tourist van to the third stop on the Red Tour was drawing near.

How to find my way back?

Or, I could move into an available apartment.

Actually, after one false (and brief) move, getting back on the main trail was super easy and super obvious.

I like that giant window in that giant rock up there on that formation.

And that completes the walking tour of the second (of six) stops on the Red Tour. Next up? Devrent Valley, a.k.a., Imagination Valley.

It is called "Imagination Valley" because, if you use your imagination, that rock looks like a camel. It actually does. Not much imagination is required. And if you use your imagination, this rock looks like a giant snail.

A little more imagination is required for that one, but only a little.

Next stop? The Avanos Pottery Workshop, a ceramics workshop (and store) to see local, historic ceramics techniques. No photos of the merchandize, so then it was onto Love Valley.

That is a rotating device that I think is there so that you can place your camera/video recorder on the arms and get a 360-degree panorama of Love Valley.

But if you look to one side, the rock formations give no clue as to why this is called "Love Valley."

Now, as you can see from the photo below, this is the place where lovers go to display some token of the permanence of their love. It is the same thing as all of those "love lock" bridges that you see all over everywhere, but especially central Europe.

But why here? And then I saw it. And once I saw, I couldn't un-see it. Look closely at the rock formations in the picture above. They look like something you would associate with the physical manifestations of love.

I was trying to use "gentle" language when I asked my question of my tour guide. You know, cultural norms and all. And you don't always know what is proper to say in what places. But I said to the tour guide something along the lines of: "I think this place is called Love Valley because those rocks look very" -- I was trying to come up with a clean word that would bridge cultures -- "masculine."

As in: phallic.

The tour guide laughed basically from the obviousness of the fact that Love Valley is named Love Valley because of the phallic rocks.

After a lunch break, and a very short walk from the chosen lunch spot, we reached the sixth and final stop on the Red Tour: Uçhisar Castle.

We all were tired at this point in the day, especially because all of us on the tour had beer or wine with lunch. I had a Turkish beer. Efes. A pilsner. It was on the sweet side. I'm not a beer drinker, but I was curious as to what a beer would be like in a Moslem country.

The tour guide gave us 15 minutes or so to do a self-guided walk through the Uçhisar Castle area.

It was about the right amount of time.

I'm not sure, but I think people might be living in the caves here.

And we will conclude the Red Tour with a horse grazing in the valley of Uçhisar Castle.

The obligatory camels and one lone donkey were at the entrance available to be ridden. I wondered why, what was the point. But then I saw a little girl, being led along as she rode on one of the camels, laughing and giggling and have a great time riding a camel. And that reminded me of one true fact of tourism: not everything is for everybody. Walking through weird landscapes of rock formations? My thing, totally and completely. Riding a camel or in the gondola of a hot air balloon? Nothing wrong with other people enjoying that sort of travel fun, but it's not my thing. And that's OK.

The Rocks Are the Stars at the Göreme Open Air Museum

Strolling through the other-worldly landscape at the open air museum

I know it's not everybody's idea of great time to go strolling amongst weird rock formations. But it is mine! Hence: my day at the Göreme Open Air Museum.

Walking from the "downtown" area of Göreme, which, as I said, is just a row of tourist-friendly restaurants, souvenir shops, cafes, hookah lounges, and carpet stores. It is there to serve the tourist horde who just wants to get in, take their hot air balloon ride, take a bunch of instagram-worthy photos, and move on to the next place where everyone is going. But there were no balloon ascents todays, so the hordes had to come out with a Plan B.  

But the number who walked the mile from the downtown to the open air museum. Maybe there were more, but I think I only saw two or three other people going by self-hoofing rather than tourist van. And that's OK. Other people on the sidewalk just would've slowed me down. And even at my advanced age, I remain a very fast walker.

The scenery was getting progressively weirder the closer I got to the park.

If the rock formations are this interesting where the looking is free, what would the open air museum look like?

Camels and donkeys available outside the museum area.

I don't know if, like the llamas you see in Ecuador and Peru, these are there only for photo ops -- which means you should tip to take a photo -- which I didn't do because I was looking down from a great height and, at the time, I didn't know how to get down there so I may been depriving some poor local man of his livelihood. Or the camels could be there for riding. Which I would not want to do. Which means taking a photo was OK.

I eventually did figure out how to get down there and saw lots of tourists taking picture and the man holding the camels' reins wasn't asking for tips, so I don't know why they were there.

The rocks, on the other hand, never demand a tip for a tourist to pose with them.

Neither do dogs.

And, again, still not inside the Open Air Museum.

But this is the way to get to the ticket booth.

Admission paid and now inside the pay-to-play part of the tour.

Do you prefer that rock tower as pictured above, sans tourists. Clean? Or merely lifeless? Or do you prefer this rock tower with tourists:

Alive but the sea of tourist humanity detracts from the simple elegance of nature's carving.

I shot this one from inside a cave area looking out into the sun.

The light effect was bizarre. Here's the dark interior of the cave.

This is a part of ancient church. You are not allowed to take photos inside the churches, despite the beautiful and well-maintained wall paintings of Biblical scenes and assorted saints. And maybe the ban on photography is the reason those wall paintings are so well-maintained.

More weird lighting effects:

Photography is allowed in this cave area because there is no wall art. Only rocks.

Well, and selfie-taking tourists.

Another church. Another set of beautiful wall paintings. Another place where interior photography is verboten.

This is the "Dark Church," or the "Karanlık Kilise," with the most magnificent interior art of all the cave churches in the open air museum. 

Shooting inside is bad. But shooting outward is OK. Tourists are not art that can be damaged through incessant photography. If that were the case, instagram would go out of business.

The Open Air Museum was great. Just not photogenic.

Actually, it is very photogenic. But the most photogenic part -- the large number of churches carved into the rocks several centuries ago --  cannot be photographed due to the risk to the priceless "cave paintings," which truly are works of art. The "Dark Church" was so awesome that there was a separate admission charge. You can see some of the art inside at this link: https://www.cappadociahistory.com/post/dark-church-karanl%C4%B1k-kilise

As for this rock formation, do you prefer to view it with a cherry tree in the foreground:

Or with wild blueberry bushes?

At this point, the skies were getting darker and the promised rain looked like it was about to fall. Time to skedaddle back to the safety of my cave hotel.

But not before noticing an early Christmas Tree in the Göreme downtown.

That was unexpected. But not the rains that started falling very hard (with hale!) once I got back to the hotel.