Cappadocia

Cappadocia is the most amazing place. If you are only ever going to visit Turkey once, you must put it on your itinery,even if you just fly in for a few days. It is a unique and magical landscape,like something out of a Tolkien novel or a retro sci-fi movie.Due to differential erosion, pinnacles of sandstone rock,sometimes covered with a harder cap and up to 40m high are everywhere with a backdrop of rose coloured cliffs and sandstone mountains.
We stayed in Goreme, a lovely little tourist town, filled with hotels and tavernas built amongst or into the fairy chimneys and sandstone hills. We did day trips by motorbike and camper to visit all the surrounding areas. This is a wonderful area for hiking, too.
During Roman and Byzantine times, 4th to 11th century AD, reclusive Christians carved cities and churches out of the mountainsides and decorated these cavernous churches with beautiful Byzantine iconic art. When they were under attack from the Persians, they built entire cities underground, with air vents on the surface disguised as wells and giant circular stone doors that could be rolled across the entrances from the inside, so they could sit out the attack.
These days some of the fairy chimneys and carved hillside villages are hotels or restaurants.
We did a hot air balloon ride one morning, which was wonderful. Goreme is one of the cheapest and most interesting places in the world to try ballooning. The weather was calm on the morning we went, and on a busy day there are up to 60 balloons out.
One of the food specialities in the area is Pottery(Testi)Kebab. Chicken, lamb or vegetarian stew is cooked in a pottery amphora sealed with a cap of bread dough and placed in the fire. When served at the table, the jar is cracked open with a hammer and the stew poured onto your plate. Cappadocia is also a wine growing area, but the good ones are over 30 euro a bottle in a restaurant.