A Turkish Treasure
Since I’ve spent a number of years living in various countries, I thought I’d share a visit to one of my favorite locations–the Cappadocia area, located on the Anatolian Plain in Turkey.
The landscape of Cappadocia is probably one of the most unusual found anywhere. Various shapes and colors abound throughout the region as a result of the elements (wind, snow, rain, extreme temperatures), volcanic action, and an underlying layer of soft rock, which can easily be carved.
Until 1955, many people resided in homes carved into the rock. The hills are honeycombed with a variety of tunnels, some so small you need to crawl to get through, while others are large enough to stand upright (as long as you aren’t a modern-day basketball player). The photos below shows several exposed residences. Continued erosion caused the soft rock to split, exposing the interiors. As a result, the Turkish government banned living in these areas and rehoused the inhabitants in nearby locations.
Several of the eroded formations are referred to as fairy chimneys. The darker areas on the tops in the photos below are basalt, remnants from the eruption of now-extinct volcanoes.
Despite the government ban on residing in the residences, there apparently isn’t a problem with the local farmers using the more accessible areas as a refuge for their sheep.
Although Turkey manufacturers a variety of motorized vehicles, sometimes the best way to get around is still on four legs.
Of course a visit to Cappadocia isn’t just about scenery. There are many local handicrafts on display and for sale. For the adventurous, you can also try your hand at making pottery or weaving a carpet. Below is our son trying out the potter’s wheel at Chez Galip’s Pottery Shop (several years ago).
Chez makes it look so easy:
Fancy making your own carpet? Looks like she has a way to go and could use some help!
So that ends our whirlwind tour through Cappadocia.
Hope you’ve enjoyed it!
Hi Randall. Yup there’s plenty of themes for consideration. I’m not trying to persuade you but there are other themes that are both simple and more up to date. 2012 is now 4 years old for example. I found Penscratch very nice. It does a good job or inserting graphics. It’s just a little light, on some of the other features. One observation might be? That sooner or later, you’ll either feel you’ve outgrown the theme. Or it cannot support some of the newer features. For example, a carousel for the graphics? Whatever? Just saying… Cheers J.
Will check out Penscratch. I haven’t look at any of the premium themes; depending on how things go with my novel, I may check them out.
Had a good review today: “… We are reading a very excellent action/spy type story. What we need is plenty of good storyline and by God Randy does it all. I hope that some film or t.v. program producers read this work as it would transcribe to the large or small screen excellently.
Can’t wait to read the next instalment because it is gripping, full of suspense and a superb story. KEEP IT UP RANDY .”
Now if I can only live up to the guy’s expectations:)
Good … Maybe I can look again myself. There was something about the “front page”. Would that be what you need? Maybe just carry on until it becomes an issue? Are you staying with that theme 2012? Changing themes can add or subtract to the fiddling with the settings. As for helping? You’re welcome. You will help the next person out and around it goes. No prob. Cheers Jamie.
Hi Jamie,
Will check for something about the front page–I didn’t see it but I’ll double check. For now I’ll stick with the 2012 theme as I want to keep it simple and let what I post be the driving force (at least I hope). Thanks again for your help. Regards, Randy
Found it–go into sharing. At the top of the page there are two options, connections and sharing buttons. Click on sharing buttons and go down to options. Just click on the one that begins with Front Page (and any others you might want) and it works just fine.
Something I found was the “Like” Button needs to be turned on for some pages. I would explain how to do it? It was buried in “Settings” and then “Sharing” but I found out how last night, for it happened to me too. Cheers Jamie
Hi Jamie,
Many thanks for the info. I’ll go check into the settings to make sure I have it set up correctly. Thanks again for your help. Regards, Randy
Okay, I checked everything out. The buttons have been added to the posts (some had them already, some didn’t) and to all of my pages, which didn’t have any. The only place missing now is the “home” page but I don’t see a way to add them. Thanks again for your help. Cheers, Randy
Hi! I loved this post! It reminded me of the cave people of China. Also, if you want to get a feel for a place that you haven’t visited, try http://www.mapcrunch.com/ Its like Google Street view but drops you in the weird backstreets of unknown lands….. 😀
Glad you like it. Will check out that website. Thanks
This was an interesting visit to Turkey; thank you for posting this (and I posted it on my Facebook for my followers to see). I especially liked the photography.
Hi Paul,
Glad you enjoyed it. I’ll be posting more photos of Turkey later, I’m sure.
amazing photography! I am so keen to visit Turkey some day. your post made me want it even more. specially liked the pottery and carpet making . Thanks for sharing this.
Many thanks! Watch for more photos of Turkey regarding different locations.
“Various shapes and colors abound throughout the region” and you captured those so well. Thanks for a very well written piece.
Hi Randall, Yes enjoyed this post on Cappadocia. Isn’t the area where early Christian Gnostics lived too? My only visit to Turkey was Istanbul and hated the smell, especially at night. It seemed to be everywhere and was told it was from the coal fired electricity generators?
You do not appear to have a “Like” button?
Cheers Jamie.
Hi Jamie,
Glad you enjoyed the post. Yes, this is where early Christians lived. I was going to include some photos of their churches but forgot to do so. If I have some time I’ll add them in or there may be another opportunity for me to cover other parts of the country and can include them.
Will see what happened to the “like” button. Many thanks for reading. Regards, Randy
Fascinating! Brilliant job inserting the photos. Very interesting. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! I could have posted many more, but I thought that was sufficient for me to get the hang of doing it. I’m sure there will be other opportunities and I’ll cover different areas.