Rest day in the heart of Cappadocia

A brief off-series episode.

Today is a rest day. And I am spending it in the heart of Cappadocia, in Uçhisar.

Perhaps you know this feeling from travelling: you visit places that seem strangely familiar. As if you'd been here before. Not physically, more inwardly. Landscapes that look like memories you never consciously had. And then there are places that defy all comparison. They stand entirely on their own. For me, Venice belongs in this category, and Bryce Canyon; all unique in their own way, incomparable. And as of today, the heart of Cappadocia too.

If one didn't know that all of this was real, one could imagine oneself on a film set. For my mind, this here today was difficult to comprehend.

What looms here began millions of years ago with a volcano. Tuff settled over the landscape, shaped by the wind, by water, by time. What remained were the fairy chimneys: slender, sometimes grotesque pillars of stone. And then came man. Hollowed them out. Turned stone into dwellings, individual chimneys into entire housing complexes, even a castle. Natural wonder and human reality are inextricably intertwined here.

You walk through this landscape and are amazed. I walked through this natural wonder full of humility — and equally full of humility for the achievement of the people who created a home for themselves here centuries ago. Back then, that certainly wasn't romantic, but clever, resilient, adapted.

Even today, some of the fairy chimneys are inhabited. The rest follow the laws of tourism, as is the case almost everywhere. Yet if you just stray a little from the beaten track, it emerges once more: this magic. Unobtrusive. Natural. And completely unique.

That was all I wanted today. Just to share a little bit of it with you.

For those who want to delve deeper: there is a well-worth-watching NDR documentary on YouTube that impressively portrays life here and tourism in this peculiar, millennia-old place.

Sometimes a rest day is enough to be reminded of why you are on the road in the first place.

By the way, I had the pleasure of meeting the family from the documentary; and because I cycled all the way to visit them, I was even allowed to peek inside the house...