Travels with Grumpus

We left Istanbul for Kayseri at 8:30 a.m., which meant a 5 a.m. wake-up. “There is no such town or region on the map actually called Cappadocia,” explained Suleyman. “That’s just the old name of this region, and it means ‘Land of the Beautiful Horses.’” Rohirrim! I thought. “Kayseri is the main city in this region.”

Grumpus and I were thoroughly exhausted by the time we met our driver at 11 a.m. at the Kayseri airport. Suleyman tried explaining that the city was an ancient town founded by the Romans (”Caesari”) which, because it lay on the silk road, was traditionally busy and prosperous even though it was completely landlocked. “To this day it is a busy city of 600,000 people,” he told us, “home to many different industries.” His audience could care less; in between fitful catnaps in the back seat of our van, Grumpus and I noticed nothing out of the ordinary — a medium-sized, dusty town with low white buildings, treeless and hot.

We both woke with a start when the van suddenly stopped, about an hour after we left the airport, at a quiet square filled with souvenir kiosks. “I will take you first to an underground city,” said Suleyman. “On the way here we passed Mount Erciyes, that snowcapped volcano that is plainly visible on clearer days. There is another extinct volcano further away. Between them, they have erupted numerous times over the millenia and covered this place in volcanic ash - Tufa - which has given Cappadocia its unique landscape. You will also see how the inhabitants of this region have used these structures. I hope you are not claustrophobic,” he added, as we approaced the entrnce of one of those “underground cities.”

“The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s very cool inside.” We stepped into what looked like a small cave and indeed the air was several degrees cooler than outside. Suleyman went on to explain that tufa is in fact quite soft and not too difficult to dig through. The earliest inhabitants of the region, and their descendants after them, hollowed out the caves that cover the landscape, burrowing deep into the hillside, and created temporary dwellings that kept them safe through waves of invasion. The small cave we entered turned out to be the antechamber of a complex of “rooms” and passageways that went down several levels and was capable of housing up to 5000 inhabitants for days at a time.

Smaller coves were sleeping chambers. Larger ones had specific functions. Our favorite - the Mutfak, or kitchen. There were also storage chambers and wine-making spaces. “The principal produce of this region was wine,” Suleyman explained. “Because they were invaded quite often they learned how to continue their trade uninterrupted. It is said that they used to crush their grapes here,” he pointed to a small space in the back of a cove with a low wall about shin high. “It’s very possible that they did because look here,” he pointed out small holes in the wall, a couple of inches in diameter at most. “The wine would have come out of those little holes, collect in those little channels, and then collect in pots that would be waiting outside.”

“Puta, ang baho siguro dito no’n,” said Grumpus and, imagining a small city of people in those cramped quarters, breathing fetid recycled air, discarding their waste god knew where, I had to agree.

Fortunately, we discovered the joys of Turkish ice cream outside. More on that later.

After lunch we drove to Pigeon Valley (so called because the inhabitants carved out pigeon holes into the rock face to collect pigeon droppings to fertilize their grape plantations) and another rock formation whose name escapes me at the moment. Check it out:

That’s me and Grumpus putting on a brave face in 35 degree dry heat, with only 3 hours of sleep the night before. Check out the minaret in the background.

Here are the random rock formations. They seem to be in evey single Cappadocia brochure.

I think Grumpus looks really cute in that last one.

Here’s a wide-angle view of a town carved into a mountain. This is pretty common in the Cappadocia region:

And here’s a home carved into a canyon wall. The small holes above the door are for pigeons to roost in. Inhabitants used to collect pigeon droppings to fertilize their grape vines:

And finally, the ubiquitous “evil eye” pendants in Turkey. These predated the adoption of Islam in the region.