First stop today, the famous site of the Three Fairy Chimneys. These "fairy chimneys" are also a product of the geology unique to this region. The thick layers of easily eroded Tuff topped by the less easily erodible basalt results in tapering towers of Tuff with hats of Basalt. Is some places they look rather mushroom like, pale stems of Tuff with caps of darker Basalt.
We made our way to the Göreme Open Air Museum, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that has half a dozen cave churches and a number of monasteries hand cut into the Tuff. Several well preserved byzantine style churches have walls with colorful Secco's. Secco's differ from Fresco's in that fresco painting involves painting on wet plaster. Secco painting is on dry plaster. The primary color was red ocher made from the iron rich clay deposits found in the area. The colors were mixed with albumin from eggs to set the color.
Most of the carved out dwellings we visited had been inhabited until the 1930's, there was a thirty year period where these places were not protected from looters and vandalism. An interesting bit of vandalism is in the form of all the eyes of Christian secco's having been scratched out. Muslim's were responsible for this. Fearing that only Allah had eyes to see into these places that were later used as mosques, also that whole idea of no living things allowed to be depicted in mosques led to scratching out of faces.
Our next stop was a visit to a ceramics making place,
Kaya Seramik Evi, which was located in a cave. Here the master potters throw clay found in the region, both the red iron rich clay and a smoother porcelain like clay. They painstakingly paint and glaze their plates in traditional Hittite and Iznik styles. The potters are all in the family, passing the trade down for several generations, they even have developed a personal family decorating style, pointillist in it's detail.
After a tour and demonstration of a hand throwing style on a foot powered wheel a volunteer was needed to try their hand at the wheel. I did not hesitate. I'm glad I had the opportunity to throw and feel this clay. Having taken a number of pottery wheel throwing classes, using a variety of clays, it was interesting to compare the the feel and texture to what I was familiar with.
The Cappodocian clay was finer than the clay I have the most experience with. It was not quite as smooth and fine as porcelain, but was similarly soft and malleable as porcelain. I really enjoyed myself. I wouldn't say it was my best work, but it was really fun to do. Mark and I ended up purchasing one of the small family design plates. I think this is a unique souvenir, I will always think of how the clay felt in my hands every time I look at the plate.
We drove on, visiting a set of cave homes where people lived in up to the 1950's. Here these rooms were still furnished as the people had lived there. I think Mark and I could live comfortably in carved out cave rooms. Think of how nice the temperature regulation is, maintaining the same temperature inside year round, feeling refreshingly cool in the summer and pleasantly warm in winter.
After dinner at the hotel most of us, meaning everyone but Mark, went out to a Turkish culture night, hosted in a cave restaurant. This involved traditional music and dancing of Turkey and all the alcohol you could drink. The night started out with the whirling dervishes. Their white long robes symbolizes the white cloth the dead are wrapped and buried in, the spinning is a prayer bringing them closer to Allah. Photos were not allowed during the actual performance, I can imagine cameras and flashes would be really distracting. It was also performed in darkness, the white robes illuminated by black lights only. They had a brief bit of whirling afterwards in the bright light for photos.
The rest of the evening was filled with dances and costumes representing different regions and aspects of Turkish culture. There was also a bride and henna ceremony, starting with the bride making an entrance on a donkey. There was quite a bit of audience participation dancing including a weaving dance that led everyone in the room outside and around a bonfire. The belly dancing had an interesting twist. Rather than it being all about objectifying this really hot women, she picked out a half dozen male volunteers for an impromptu lesson. The men then were the center of attention for the show, including Scott, who was a really good sport about it all. The place turned into a Turkish disco for a bit before we needed to go which was fun too. Yeah, Mark would have hated this :)
