Explore South Central Anatolia
The central Anatolian plateau seems at first sight to be an unpromising prospect. A large area is virtual desert, while much of the central plateau is steppe, blitzed by cold and heavy snowfall in winter and suffering water shortages in summer. Yet within this region are two landscapes any traveller to the country should visit – the azure lakes west of Konya and north of Antalya, and, fruther east, the unique rock formations of Cappadocia. The region’s cities, particularly Afyon, Konya and Kayseri are also well worth exploring, each with a story to tell and a series of dramatic monuments from towering fortresses and venerated tombs to exquisite mosques.
Turkey’s Lakeland has been largely ignored by the Turkish tourist industry. Stretches of silver waters stand out against the grey plateau, or appear suddenly between mountains to startling effect. Accessible from Afyon to the north or Antalya from the south, the lakes have supported small settlements of reed-cutters and fishermen for thousands of years. Today their villages, for example Beyşehir, Burdur and particularly Eğirdir, earn an income running simple pansiyons for an ever increasing number of visitors. Eğirdir also provides access to the St Paul Trail, a fabulous trek through the Toros mountains, following in the footsteps of the famous evangelist. Also accessible from here are the ski slopes of Mount Davraz set in the highlands north of the lakes.
East of the lakes area, the city of Konya is the focus of Sufic mystical practice and teaching throughout the Middle East. Once the capital of the Selçuk Empire, it is today famous as the home of the whirling dervish sect, the Mevlevî.
Further east, the area between the extinct volcanoes of Erciyes Dağ and the Melendiz range is Cappadocia. Here, water and wind have created a land of fantastic forms from the soft rock known as tuff, including forests of cones, table mountains, canyon-like valleys and castle-rocks. From the seventh to the eleventh centuries AD, it was a place of refuge for Christians during Arab and Turkish invasions into the steppe and its churches and dwellings carved from the rock, particularly by monastic communities, and its unearthly landscapes make an irresistible tourist draw. At the northwest fringes of this region, the modern city of Kayseri hides a wealth of Islamic monuments set below the imposing volcanic peak of Mount Erciyes.
Read More- The life and teachings of Haci Bektas Veli
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Outdoor and adventure tourism
Outdoor and adventure tourism
Cappadocia’s rugged terrain lends itself to outdoor and adventure tourism, from the relative effortlessness of hot-air ballooning to arduous ascents of towering volcanic peaks. The region’s canyons and fairy chimneys take on a whole new aspect when viewed from above, and hot-air-balloon trips are now incredibly popular.
There are plenty of hiking trails through the valleys, though so far only basic sketch maps are widely available, and signposts sparse. The trail from Göreme to Üçhisar through Pigeon Valley, and the Ihlara Gorge are just two routes popular with independent walkers, though there are many more. From Christmas to early March, winter snows give the Cappadocian landscape an ethereal, hauntingly beautiful appearance, and snowshoeing is growing in popularity.
Cappadocia is also tailor-made for mountain biking, with a network of dirt tracks connecting villages to each other and to their fields, hilly terrain and plunging valleys. The annual Cappadocia Mountain Bike Festival attracts top bikers from around the world.
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The geological formation of Cappadocia
The geological formation of Cappadocia
The unique landscape of Cappadocia is now one of the star attractions of Turkey, yet on first impression it can seem a disturbing place. The still dryness and omnipresent dust give an impression of barrenness, and the light changes with dramatic effect to further startle the observer. Only with time comes the realization that the volcanic tuff that forms the land is exceedingly fertile, and that these weird formations of soft, dusty rock have been lived in over millennia by many varying cultures. The most fascinating aspect of a visit here is the impression of continuity: rock caves are still inhabited and pottery is still made from the clay of the main river, the Kızılırmak. Wine is produced locally as it has been since Hittite times, and the horses from which the region takes its name (Cappadocia translates from the Hittite as “land of well-bred horses”) are still to some extent used in the region, along with mules and donkeys.
The peaks of three volcanoes – Erciyes, Hasan and Melendiz Dağları – dominate Cappadocia. It was their eruptions some thirty million years ago, covering the former plateau of Ürgüp in ash and mud, that provided the region’s raw material: tuff. This soft stone, formed by compressed volcanic ash, has been worked on ever since, by processes of erosion, to form the valleys and curious fairy chimney rock formations for which the region is so famous.
The original eruptions created a vast erosion basin, dipping slightly towards the Kızılırmak River, which marks an abrupt division between the fantasy landscape of rocky Cappadocia and the green farmland around Kayseri. Where the tuff is mixed with rock, usually basalt, the erosion process can result in the famous cone-shape chimneys: the tuff surrounding the basalt is worn away, until it stands at the top of a large cone. Eventually the underpart is eaten away to such an extent that it can no longer hold its capital: the whole thing collapses and the process starts again.
In the Cemil valley, near Mustafapaşa, the cones give way to tabular formations – table mountains – caused by the deep grooves made by rivers in the harder geological layers. Another important region lies to the northwest of the Melendiz mountain range, the valley of the Melendiz Suyu, or Ihlara valley. The most individual feature of this region is the red canyon through which the river flows, probably the most beautiful of all the Cappadocian landscapes.
