#cappadocia Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

May 3, 2025May 3, 2025

Amazing Cappadocia churches

if you travel to Turkey and decide to go to Cappadocia make sure you visit the historical open air Museum including the best preserved and amazing Cappadocia churches.

Explanation of the various churches carved out of rock

Horse stables for tourist riding adventures in the area

Camel riding at amazing Cappadocia churches — You can ride a camel or a horse around a small area

Yogurt with vegetables — Yogurt on top vegetables and beans

Church explanation — An explanation of the churches

Ancient script on amazing Cappadocia churches — Ancient script probably referring to somebody’s burial and some ancient defacers writing as well

Sitting area — People could sit around here

Carved out of stone and decorated — Amazing carve outs

View from the top — Another view from the top

Gathering place — Another place for people together and sit and eat

Body placement — Another place for bodies

Defaced religious figures — These artwork figures representing religious people were defaced

High up entranceways — They had many tunnels and levels so you could enter at a lower level and then go up through the tunnels which were very difficult to walk through due to height

A dugout complex — Another dugout complex

April 15, 2025April 15, 2025

Beautiful Cappadocia surroundings

if you visit make sure you take in all of the Beautiful Cappadocia surroundings. I went when there was snow on the ground and it was pretty cold which gives it a very different atmosphere from the summertime and the peak tourist season. You can visit anytime and I recommend going when you like the kind of weather and scenery you will find there. Most people will not visit in the winter time but you can get some amazing scenery and photos that few people have.

Hillside living styles — 4000s of years people have been repurposing the hills and the hillsides for different kinds of living styles

Deep snow driving — in the early morning driving was a little challenging in the deep snow

Amazing breakfast — I normally don’t eat much for breakfast and the place I stayed provided an amazing variety for the morning

Valley lifestyle — Most people are now living in the valleys

Interesting dugouts — an amazing way to live

Good pizza — This is kind of a hybrid Italian and Turkish style pizza which was very nice

Turkish beer protected — This is the famous Turkish beer which is very nice and you will see a foil covering on the top to keep it clean which I found to be an interesting way to protect the contents and the can

I had to go visit this Korean restaurant which had very edible food but if you know a lot about Korean food you might want to try some other restaurant

March 21, 2025March 21, 2025

Visit Underground Cappadocia

when you visit underground Cappadocia the first thing you might think is the people were very short, not taller than 3 feet. They built these catacombs by digging in the rock for so many years is probably difficult to determine how many. They made the passages short so any people raiding the area would have to crouch down to get through the passage and that means it would be extremely difficult for them to fight. Try walking through the many levels of carved tunnels and you will come to understand why people left these rock dwellers alone. It’s one of the most interesting living arrangements made by humans.

Staircase to another level — The stairways to other levels are narrow and curve around so enemies could never see what’s in the distance.

Difficult lighting — I really wonder how they would have lighted these tunnels without creating a deadly breathing environment. But maybe the breathing environment was deadly.

Gathering area — There are larger areas where they lived and stayed for longer periods of time and which branch off to different tunnels and levels

Very short passage ways — You can see how difficult it is to get through this place quickly which was probably the purpose of the structure. If you visit you will find yourself getting extremely tired bending down and walking at the same time. These people must’ve been very sturdy

Holes in the walkways — There are holes in the passage ways which the guide explained were used for storing things but also for providing traps for enemies coming through. But can you imagine rotting bodies in those holes? Maybe they had a removal crew.

Grates on the holes — now there are grates over the holes but they are good traps once the grates are removed

Cross-section showing levels — This cross-section shows six or more levels carved inside the limestone rock but they were probably more

Snowing on the roads — Driving back to the hotel in the snow. Yes it snows heavily in Turkey and I hit a lot of of it

Beautiful snowy countryside — But you can see that the snow adds beauty to the countryside

A Turkish beer — The Turkish beer is very tasty and very good after a long day of driving and walking through tunnels and avoiding the large Chinese tour groups

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