Türkiye | Cappadocia | Göreme | Balloon Flight

Whenever I strike up a conversation with anyone in Göreme, the first question they ask is, “have you taken a balloon ride?” l quickly discovered that balloon rides are the main reason people come here. I talked to three people, two women and a man in their mid-twenties from Belgium, who had flown to Istanbul in the morning and then taken the 5:10 p.m. flight to Kayseri. From the Kayseri airport they took a bus to Göreme, where they stayed the night. They got up the next morning at 4:30 for a balloon flight and after the balloon flight went on the so-called Red Tour of the Cappadocia region, leaving Göreme at 9:30 a.m. and returning at 6:30 p.m. Then they took  the bus back to Kayseri, where they caught the 11:00 p.m. flight back to Istanbul. They planned to stay two days in Istanbul for a little shopping and sight-seeing and then fly back to Belgium. They claimed that the entire trip was planned around the balloon flight. Seeing as how everyone else was taking balloon rides it seemed downright churlish of me to come to Göreme and not take one myself. So I signed up for a flight.

There must be at least fifteen or twenty companies offering balloon flights in Göreme and competition between the various operators is fierce. I shopped around for a discount and, oddly enough, found one with a company that I later discovered is one of the most highly regarded in the region. The companies have this thing organized to the T. They pick you up at your hotel at 4:30 in the morning and whisk you to their offices, where a buffet breakfast is served. Then you are driven in a van to the take-off point, which apparently varies according to the winds that day. My company had two balloons taking off that morning, one with a 8-person gondola and one with a 16-person gondola. I had been told the 8-person gondola offered more space to maneuver for photos and a generally less crowded experience, but it also cost more. I signed up for the balloon with the 16-person gondola. As it turned out, there were only ten people in the gondola, so we actually had more space per person than the people in the 8-person gondola, which was full. On my ride were people from Turkey, France, Italy, China, and Korea.

Our pilot said he had no control over the direction the balloon took. We simply had to go with the prevailing breezes. But at different altitudes the breezes blew in different directions, so we could control our flight path somewhat by changing altitude. First we started out fairly low and drifted north-northeast over the village of Çavuşin, at the western end of the Red Valley. 

Our takeoff point. Several other companies were using the same site (click on photos for enlargements).

Drifting off towards Çavuşin, with the cliffs lining the Red Valley in the distance.

Drifting off towards Çavuşin

The village of Çavuşin.

Cave dwellings in the cliffs above Çavuşin

Cliffs over the village of Çavuşin.

Then we rose in altitude to catch the slight wind to the southwest. Soon we were approaching the village of Uchisar. 

Village of Uchisar in the distance

Village of Uchisar

Then we dropped in altitude and again drifted to the north, above the Love Valley.

The Love Valley

Actually I had walked to Love Valley from Göreme two days before.

Love Valley from ground level

Love Valley  from ground level

 Love Valley from ground level

Another view of Love Valley

Then we drifted over the White Valley

White Valley

Approaching our landing site

Before taking off the pilot had given us instruction on what to do in case of a hard landing. In the event it was not necessary. You could have put a full cup on coffee on the railing of the gondola before takeoff and not spilled a drop on the entire flight, including the landing.

The pilot landed the gondola directly on the blue trailer.

Happy ballooners preparing for the traditional post-flight champagne toast.

Türkiye | Cappadocia | Güzelyurt

After viewing the Super Bloodmoon in Göreme I wandered off to the town of Güzelyurt, thirty-five miles to the southwest. Güzelyurt, as you probably know, was once the home of Gregory of Nazianzus, a.k.a. Gregory the Theologian (c. 329–390), who is credited, along with St. Basil of Kayseri, with laying the theological foundations of the Greek Orthodox Church. Gregory himself was largely responsible for formulating the Christian concept of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—that continues to befuddle the less enlightened right down to the present Day. 

Güzelyurt (roughly translated as “beautiful home”), population about 3,750, could hardly be more different than Göreme. While Göreme supposedly has a permanent population of only 2000, it has some 370 hotels, guesthouses, and hostels (many of the employees of the hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. live in nearby towns). It is an international tourism hub teeming with visitors of every stripe. Güzelyurt, on the other hand, is a laid back old-fashioned Turkish town that appears to have not a single restaurant or shop that caters specifically to tourists. There are a dozen or so hotels, most of them occupying old Greek mansions or cave dwellings, but they have their own restaurants where their clientele eat. I saw a couple of Russians, a couple of Germans, and a group of Chinese, but I would say ninety per cent of the tourists are from other parts of Turkey.

The main street of laid back Güzelyurt (click on photos for enlargements)

The town square. This photo was taken early in the morning. Later the tables are filled with local tea-coolers. 

My hotel

Another view of my hotel

Patio of my hotel

My hotel from the bottom of the canyon

The town is centered around Monastery Valley, a high-walled valley—or a low walled canyon—about 3.4 miles long. The extinct volcanic cone of 10,722-foot Mount Hasan, the second highest mountain of central Anatolia, looms fifteen miles off to the southwest. During the time of the Roman Empire the settlement was known as Karballa and in Seljuq times as Gelveri. The town was inhabited mostly by Greeks until 1924 when the Greek population was deported to Greece where they founded a town known as Nea Karvali. Turks deported from Greece moved into the town but not enough to fill all the homes. The abandoned ruins of many Greek-era buildings can still be seen. The town was not given the Turkish name of Güzelyurt until the 1960s. The current town is determined to retain its traditional character. By law local stone must be used in the construction of all new buildings, and new buildings must conform to traditional styles of architecture. 

Lower part of the Monastery Valley

Quiet streets of Güzelyurt

 Quiet streets of Güzelyurt

Quiet streets of Güzelyurt

Old Greek building

The canyon walls are riddled with cave dwellings 

Another view of the canyon wall

The original church associated with Gregory of Nazianzus was built around 385 a.d. In 1835 the church was remodeled and enlarged. After Turkish people moved into the town it was converted into a mosque. 

The Church of St. Gregory, now a mosque

The Church of St. Gregory

The Church of St. Gregory

St. Gregory

Inside of the Church of St. Gregory, which now functions as a mosque

There are said to be ruins of twenty-eight cave churches in Monastery Valley, plus two underground cities and hundreds of cave dwellings. 

The Sivisli Church, one of the twenty-eight cave churches in the Monastery Valley. It is not known when it was built. 

Interior of the Sivisli Cave Church. It was carved out of the living rock. 

Now-faded wall paintings in the Sivisli Church

Opening to cave dwellings and underground city

One of the entrances to an underground city

Another entrance to an underground city

First floor room in the underground city

Room in the underground city

Tunnel leading to lower rooms in the underground city. The passageway is at most four feet high. Given my height and the precarious state of my back I was unable to negotiate it. There were dozens if not hundreds of these underground cities in Cappadocia, some of which housed several thousand people. This is one of the smaller ones.

Türkiye | Tur Abdin | Mor Gabriel Monastery

After visiting Midyat we wandered down to Mor Gabriel Monastery, twelve miles southeast of Midyat and fifteen miles north of the Syrian border. Here, at least, Syriac Christianity appears to be surviving. This is one of the oldest monasteries in the world. It was founded in 397 by Mor (saint) Samuel (d. 433) and Mor Simon (d. 409). Originally it was called the Monastery of Mor Samuel and Mor Simon, but in the seventh century it was renamed Mor Gabriel Monastery after Mor Gabriel (634-668), the bishop of the Tur Abdin Region. Except for brief periods during wars and civil disorders the monastery has operated continuously since the year 397. Visitors are not allowed to wander around the grounds by themselves (although you can stay overnight if you make previous arrangements), but a guide is provided to give you a tour. Our guide, a young Syriac Christian, spoke perfect, unaccented English. 

Entrance to the monastery (click on photos for enlargements)

Entrance to the courtyard

Inner courtyard of the monastery

Monastery grounds

Steeples

This circular room, a later addition to the original monastery, was built in the sixth century with funds provided by the notorious Empress Theodora, the wife of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. 

Circular Room. The small windows on the dome open on monks’ cells. 

Our guide related that Theodora was born near here, in what is now Syria, and that her father was a Syriac priest. It was this connection with the area and the Syriac Church that motivated her to make a sizable donation to the monastery for the purpose of building this room. This is the sanitized version of Theodora’s background. Most sources do agree that she was born in Syria, but many maintain that Theodora was the daughter of a bear trainer and a professional dancer and actress. They began pimping out Theodora and her sister Komito when they were both pre-adolescents. Theodora quickly began one of Constantinople’s most notorious prostitutes. If we are to believe the Byzantine historian Procopius (c. AD 500 – c. AD 565), who probably knew her personally, Theodora engaged in behaviour which would make even Kim Kardashian blush.

None of this mattered to Emperor Justinian, who became besotted with Theodora and eventually married her. As the wife of a Byzantine emperor Theodora might well have wanted to upgrade her image by donating money to religious institutions. Thus she has been memorialized here at Mor Gabriel Monastery. Justinian himself initiated the construction of Aya Sofia in Istanbul, to this day one of the most magnificent religious structures in the world. Maybe he was feeling guilty about marrying a nymphomaniacal prostitute and wanted to do something to atone for it?

Theodora (c. 500 – 28 June 548) portrayed on a mosaic in a church in Ravenna, Italy (not my photo)

This was probably the dining hall in the monastery

A book, I believe a Bible, but I am not sure, in Syriac Script. The Syriac Language is closely related to Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus of Nazareth, leader of the Galileans.

The Syriac Script was based on the ancient Aramaic Script. The Sogdians of Inner Asia adapted the Syriac Script into their own Sogdian Script; the Uighurs in what is now Xinjiang Province in China adapted the Sogdian Script into their own Uighur Script; and later the Uighur Script was used as the basis for the Traditional Mongolian Script. Thus the Mongolian Vertical Script, which is experiencing somewhat of a revival in Mongolia, can be traced back to the ancient Aramaic Script, a variation of which is still used by Syriac Christians in Turkey today. 

Closer view of Syriac Script. 

A Syriac inscription on a wall in the monastery

New addition to the monastery. Local stone carvers and masons have lost none of their traditional skills.

Good example of local stonework