An Anatolian man

It's hard to imagine that this harsh and unforgiving landscape would lend itself to be cultivated. That's why they need the pigeon poop but not anymore since the advent of chemical fertilisers. The water is collected in hidden cisterns in the rock from the spring rains and then channeled into the land to be used for the home, the crops and the animals. Here he has a donkey as a mean of transportation and some chickens. He lives here during the warmer months. It is too cold in winter, he'll move back to the village. Here he is selling us some of his dried fruit. We bought some from him, we liked the dried mulberries. Upon hearing that we were Americans, he wanted to give us a Koran in English. We told him it was too heavy, we didn't want it. We have no use for a Koran, we are Christians. Our Bibles are pretty well thumbed through. I've to replace a few in my lifetime. The book itself is not sacred, I just throw them out. It's just a book but it is the Word in it that has any meaning. We are to digest the Word and work it into our lives. We sat awhile to drink apple tea and to use the bathroom which he charged 0.50TL. It seemed so idyllic. I guess one can be easily tempted to stay and live here. Compared to our hard pressed and compacted life, this is so fine. But I'm all for carrying on and onward to another place.... always on the move.....and why not, that's where the money is....

A day of landscape

 There are no roses in Rose valley. It's called Rose valley because of the rose pink color of the rocks. There's Rose valley and there is Green valley. I was told by insiders that most people are taken to Rose valley because they want to leave Green valley as pristine as possible. We weren't really hiking in Rose valley, we were going to the unpublished churches, some are off of Rose valley. We did meet a lot of other visitors from all over the world.

The yellow color are because of the sulfur deposits. This was a day of unusual landscapes as well as unpublished churches. It was so hot. One must be careful not to over exert and to keep well hydrated. I almost fainted from heatstroke on this day.
When this post appears, it would have been a few months ago that we took this trip. As the song goes, '....fast away the old year passes...' If we want to do anything we'd better do it fast and soon because time just flies. I shall be leaving for Athens on March 16, 2011.

Another hidden church

 One could never tell from the outside that there is a fascinating church inside. Our jaw dropped, we were in awe, another amazingly beautiful rock-cut church.

 Notice that entrance, it is definitely cut by man, not nature. This is one of the tell tale signs that a church exists in there.

This is a fascinating church, cut in the rock. The Bible in the book of Obadiah 1:3 speaks of people, 'you who live in the clefts of the rocks, and make your home on the heights...' so people have lived and worshipped in caves thousands of years ago. The entrance doesn't look like much but upon entering inside, it opens up into this magnificent structure. The amazing thing was there are no frescoes just red markings on the walls. A few churches in Cappadocia have this distinct red cross hatch paintings on them. It makes for a great variety and raises more questions, why? No one knows. We couldn't stop taking pictures of every scrap of paint.