Our group of 8 just leaving for the Cappadocia region --- exciting for us! 

Much of the countryside was grain farming land ... appeals to my farmer roots!

This was an interesting stop at a exibition of a division of Islam that has apparently 25 million followers-   It borders only slightly within the definition of religion .... and the group is not accepted by mainline Islam.  They regard themselves as a movement rather than a religion ... based on humanitarian values.

Here are the basic principles ... and the name of the movement at the bottom.

 They claim a common bond with the principles of Ataturk who was the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

Here was our hotel room in the heart of the Cappadocia region ... A pretty wondeful spot for the 2 days we explored the area.

Thousands of these cave houses dug into the rock formations here ... Many of them from the Roman time ... some from before.

An amazing geological formation ... soft rock ideal for making cave homes.

We got a horse and buggy tour guide of the cave region.

Here are the ladies enjoying life in the buggy.

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Some of these dwelling were complex ... this one was complete with bathing pools inside

This was an ancient cave church from the Roman period

Apparently the capacity to make vessels for storage was a measure of how well a society developed .... The technique of the potters wheel, and development of suitable clay was important in earlies cultures.

The ladies all bought rings with a special kind of stone that changes color according to temperature (or their mood!)

An interesting underground city from the Roman period ... This one was not the largest .... but apparently there was an underground  city with capacity for 30 000 people.

The underground hallways were low and narrow but some of the rooms were spacious.

One of the advantages of cave cities was how easily they could be defended. Here is a round rock door that could be rolled to cover the entrance  ... and above the entrance tunnel leading to it, was a room where the inhabitants could pour hot oil on enemies trying to pry the door open.!!!

We met this friendly Imam for the village that had discovered this underground city when he was a boy working on his fathers fields. He told how he was watering tomatoes and saw how the water disappeared into a hole that turned out to be this underground city from several thousand years ago!

This was an underground church from the same period ... apparently som magical health powers that Mireille was being injected with here!

This was a underground Turkish restaurant/entertainment center where we spent an evening.  Very interesting.

We ordered a stew like dish that was cooked in these clay pots that needed to be broken with a hammer to get at the food!

Lots of amazing performers all evening ... this lady performing with a skirt of many layers!

Early in the morning from our hotel balcony ... Hundreds of hot air ballons silently floating by!

This was our last morning at our hotel overlooking the area.