Cappadocia - the prime target

The volcanic erosions of Cappadocia (Kapadokya) exceeded all expectations.

The formations were created by erosion of 300 ft of ash and lava layers deposited by two spectacular volcanoes thirty miles apart - the 13,000 ft Erciyes seen here behind Uchisar castle and 11,000 ft Mt Hasan seen here behind the village of Ilhara

Some of the erosion produced normal, albeit spectacular, formations

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But others were far from normal. For some reason in many places erosion produced towering columns with a soft 'tuff' main stem and a hard volcanic lava rock top. The results were startling......

Some (above) defied gravity but the most eye watering were these....

Beyond the shapes generated by natural erosion many of the formations had been further eroded by the actions of man.

Take these Klu Klux Klan?? numbers for instance___________________________

Simple crude caves such as these in Goreme (below left) are added to as in the honeycomb rock at the Castle at Uchisar..... (right)

....producing areas of habitation as left below and ultimately cave based villages (below right).

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The hotel itself - the Museum Hotel at Uchisar illustrates the combination with cave bedrooms, bathrooms and hallway

On a more modest scale Jacky stands

outside a smart cave house

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Did we have a disappointment in Cappadocia? Yes, just one. On the way south to the coast we tried to get close to the 13,000 ft volcano Mt Erciyes but with cloud gathering the only view we could get was this final shot of the area with the twin peak just visible to the right above the clouds (above the right hand extremity of the triple direction sign) Even this seemed dramatic typifying Cappadocia which turned out to be one of the most remarkable and geologically spectacular locations we have ever seen
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