May 09, 2022

Göreme, Cappadocia, Turkey

Today we’re visiting Göreme, a town in the Cappadocia region of Turkey, best known for its natural rock formations. These famous rocks are often called ‘fairy chimneys’ and are typically found in dry, hot areas. They were formed when a thick layer of volcanic ash solidified over millions of years into soft, porous rock called tuff that was overlaid by hard basalt. Cracks in the basalt allowed wind and rain to gradually wash away the softer bottom layer, leaving the hard basalt to cap tall columns of the tuff. The result is these unusual, often beautiful formations that spread across Anatolia.

This part of modern-day Turkey has been inhabited since at least the Hittite era, between 1800 and 1200 BCE, and possibly for much longer. Numerous ancient empires fought over the region, with Hittites, Assyrians, Neo-Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans each laying claim to Anatolia at times. To escape this dangerous world, the locals learned to burrow into the hillsides for protection. Today, visitors can see the vast, complex, interconnected caves in which societies thrived and sheltered for millennia. Göreme National Park was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1985 and is now a popular tourist destination.