Cappadocia Extension

Today, we board an early morning bus headed back to the airport. Those leaving today will board the British Air flight headed to London, then change planes and fly back to Chicago. We’ll miss you, but you will carry with you memories of an experience you’ll never forget.

Others of us will spend two more days in Turkey visiting an truly amazing place: Cappadocia.
Central Turkey was know in the Old Testament as the land of the Hittites. Cappadocia is specifically mentioned in Acts and 1 Peter. It is an ancient land that has hosted many empires and cultures.

Its original name of Kapatukya derives from Persian and means "country of beautiful horses". Cappadocia came under Hittite, Phrygian, Persian, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman rule. It is renowned for its "fairy chimneys".
During volcanic activity millions of years ago, a layer of ash and lava accumulated on the plateau which was then in part covered by a layer of basalt. Pounded by rain and wind, the basalt took the shape of cones while the exposed ash and lava were eroded and created valleys.

During the Christian Byzantine era, Cappadocia was on the edge of a fraying empire and the first place Persians, Arabs, Mongols, and others would attack as they moved towards the Mediterranean. With little hope of quick help during these swift attacks, the Cappadocia’s crafted a unique defense – they created underground cities that they could flee to in times of invasion.

During the Byzantine period some 360 churches and monasteries were built by excavating these earth pillars, and their walls were decorated with religious paintings. In this amazing region, we will see houses, churches, and – literally – whole cities carved into the volcanic ash hillsides.
We will board an early morning flight to Kaysari and bus to our hotel Yunak Evleri. Yunak Evleri is a combination of six cave houses with a total of 30 private cave rooms dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries and crowned with a 19th century Greek Mansion. You’ve NEVER stayed in a place like this.

We spend two days exploring this rich region of unbelievable sights. We will probably fly back to Istanbul late on Wednesday, so we will be ready for our flight home. You won’t want to miss this unique and exciting extension of our tour.

Special thanks to my friend Todd Bolen of www.bibleplaces.com for some of the pictures in this post. Todd is the photographer of some of the finest photographs of Biblical sites available.