Cappadocia
Posted at 10:14 AM, May. 28, 2010
Writing this in Girne (also called Kyrenia depending on whether you prefer the Greek or Turkish version) in Northern Cyprus (known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus or TRNC) where we have a few days. As I said in the last blog Kemer is a delightful town, strong tourist centre and with some interesting nearby places to explore. We will certainly stop there for a few days on our way back up after the rally. From Kemer it was to Alanya and we found this to be a huge tourist centre with around 800 hotels stretching along the coast. We were hosted at the new marina about 10 minutes out of the town centre – this is a marina that has been several years in the making but the making is now largely complete and the facilities can only be described as world class. The photo below evidences this. I don’t know how successful it will be however as there appears to be limited cruising areas nearby and it may remain largely a stop off point for yachts on a passage. The marina hosted the second formal dinner in the yet again stunning setting around the pool area – the local mayor attended and spoke. The same band as at Kekova and Kemer again hit the right notes when it came to the music department.
The pool, bar and restaurant area at Alanya marina
Alanya was a medieval walled city with a fortress on the headland above the town. The town was given to Cleopatra by Mark Anthony in 44 BC so Cleopatra could use the timber around the area to build ships. In 1221 Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad cruised into town and took over – and this is the guy who we in the western world know as Aladdin of the lamp with the genie fame. There is a huge statute of him in the town. The Taurus mountain range runs along the coast and we took a gondola ride to a nearby mountain peak that stands at around 2300 metres literally rising straight up from the coast. Unfortunately the peak was in cloud so the anticipated views were not to be – still a bit of snow around so pretty cool up there in shorts and t-shirt.
The major tour we did was a two day trip to Cappadocia (or Kapadokya) – and it sure was a major. We departed by bus (three busloads from the rally) at 0400 hrs last Thursday and drove up through the Taurus mountains for a few hours (the pass we went through was at 1900 metres and again snow and ice on the peaks all around) arriving at the town of Konya where we visited the Mevlana Museum – the former lodge of the whirling dervishes. This was all started by Celaleddin Rumi who was born in Afganistan in 1207 and became one of the world’s great mystic philosophers – he later became known as Mevlana (meaning “our guide”). More than 1.5 million Muslims visit the museum each year. Konya is on the edge of what appears to be vast plains that are totally given over to wheat hence it is referred to as the bread basket. We drove across the plains for a couple of hours on virtually a straight and rough road before arriving in Cappadocia area mid afternoon – so the drive was basically an Auckland to Wellington trip. The region that makes up Cappadocia, that includes several towns, is a geographical aberration as the landscape has been carved out over thousands of years into weird and unusual formations and with a huge history. Excavations here show evidence of life dating to 3500 BC, it was the centre of the Hittite Empire that lasted from 1800 BC to 1200 BC and was taken by Alexander the Great in 333 BC. The area was a major centre of Christianity until the 7th century until the new religion of Islam arrived.
A fedw of the numerous "fairy chimney's"
The area has underground cities carved out of the rock and we visited several areas where we were able to walk though extensive underground houses. The place is riddled with cave dwellings, unusual rock formations referred to as fairy chimneys, rock hewn churches amid significant wine growing and a backdrop of three inactive volcanos, still snow covered, explain why this area is called the 8th wonder of the world. Of the three towns in Cappadocia the main centre is Goreme and this town is a World Heritage Site although the whole area seems to be referred to in this way.
Looking out over part of Goreme town
The day ended with a visit to the underground home of the whirling dervishes where we watched the “sema,” a ritualistic performance described as an evocative, romantic, unforgettable experience. The sema is a ritual dance representing union with God. The dervishes dress in long white robes with full skirts that represent their shrouds atopped with conical felt hats. Maybe an important ritual but most struggled to find it evocative or romantic and it was forgettable – although Pam said she enjoyed it. After this experience we were delivered to the hotel around 1000 hrs for a very late dinner and a few hours sleep before the next day morning call that started at 0430 hrs.
The wirling dervishes in their underground home.
After the exploring of the first day the Friday brought us to the world aloft where we ticked off our first ballooning experience. I can only describe this as a fantastic experience with some 50 balloons in the air as we skimmed across fairy chimneys with only a couple of metres to spare to soaring high to 700 metres for great views to dropping down and quietly skimming the housetops of one of the towns – but bringing people out to their balconies as our balloonist fired another jet of flaming gas up into the balloon briefly making a huge noise. What a great way to spend the morning and then the obligatory champagne to finish.
View of an identical balloon to our one carrying rally yachties
The day finished with the long drive back to Alanya but not before we visited one of the “carvanserais.” (caravan palaces). There are many of these built at around 30 kilometre intervals for the camel caravan trains travelling the silk road which passed through Anatolia from China.
The two day trip covered 1300 k’s and essentially I think we managed to get four days crowded into two days. Our last day in Alanya was spent recovering from the Cappadocia trip and completing odd jobs on the boat. From Alanya it was a 106 mile overnight sail to Girne where we are at present. But more of that in the next posting.
Cheers
Keith