Cappadocia Dreamin’

Cappadocia’s landscape-slash-architecture seems dreamt and designed by Salvador Dali. It’s a surreal place, dream-inducing, telling many stories and legends.

What you see is mostly rocks, volcanic spew of years past that, through millions of years of erosion, has formed some truly majestic and impossible-to-believe rock formations. It’s a type of a soft rock (actually called volcanic tuff) that has allowed Ancient Cappadocians to carve architecture out of them. These rocks were made into houses, monumental temples, and multi-story underground cities that hid and protected Cappadocians from ongoing wars.

Located in central Turkey, Cappadocia has seen a fair bit of action. The first architects of these underground dwellings were the Phrygians in around 1200 BC. Later, the Christians used them as refuge as they were being persecuted by the Romans. In the 7th and 8th century, these underground cities played a major role in sheltering its people during the Arab-Byzantine Wars.

Nowadays, it’s mostly known for its hot-air balloon experience — another epic sight on its own. From that elevated perspective, you can fully take in this other-wordly terrain, and the hot-air balloon espectable.

Photos by Joaquin Carvajal.