Cappodocia - Göreme and Whirling Dervishes

There is more to hot-air balloons in Cappodocia that most tourists don't know about.  Here in this unique landscape there are many rock formations that were used as dwellings or churches in the early days of Christianity.  One such area is called Göreme.

Göreme is literally an open-air museum.  Here we find ancient rock-cut churches, chapels, and monasteries adorned with Byzantine frescoes dating from the tenth to the 13th centuries.  Over millions of years the wind and rain have shaped the soft white volcanic rock called tufa into a  landscape of dripping cones, pillars, pinnacles, and fairy chimneys soaring more than a hundred feet into the sky.  Again, it's a reminder how similar it is to some parts of the American southwest like Sedona, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Grand Canyon, etc.

One of the cave structures

Pictures showing the inside of caves, which are churches

Standing rocks

A big cave housing another church

This could be Bryce Canyon NP

More Cave Structures

Many of the churches were built into small caves.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs of the inside.  This area is one of the most touristy places in Turkey.  Before the 1970s' it was hardly known but with ballooning and ancient rock formations and churches it has become the economic lifeline of most of the residents of this area.  Göreme National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We also had the opportunity to visit a local farming family.  This part of OAT's program for better understanding of the local culture and tradition.

One of the most interesting tour was to witness the legendary “Ritual of Sema,” a traditional religious dance wherein dervishes (Muslim religious figures akin to monks) spin faster and faster to summon the divine.  This is a religious order also called the Mevlevi Order.   This is popularly known as the Whirling Dervishes.

The Ritual of Sema

Whirling Dervishes

Poster Program

The next day we'll be driving to Konya, which was a center of  Seljuk culture and home of the Mevlevi, or Whirling Dervish. We’ll visit the Mevlana Muzesi (a museum dedicated to Mevlana Celalettin Rumi), as well as the former tekke (dervish hall) that now holds the tomb of Celaleddin Rumi.