Today we visited Cappadocia, a large area of amazing rock formations & underground cities carved straight out of the soft rock. One area we visited had 11 levels - 3 floors above ground carved into the cliff, and 8 levels below ground! A bit like caves, but cosier & better designed. The six- floor monastery carved into a cliffface was particularly impressive.
Apparently people used to still live in some of the old carved out dwellings until very recently, when the government relocated them to neaby towns (that have nice modern things like plumbing, sewerage etc). Mind you, you can still see a few tv aerials poking out from some of the 'caves'
The pointy rock formations that abound are formed simply by water erosion into the very soft rock. It looks very other-worldly, which I suppose is why they filmed some of the first 'Star Wars' movie here.
Later on, while in the neaby town of Goreme, we tried out a genuine Turkish bath in the local (men only) bathhouse. After sitting around in a very spacious marble-enclosed steam room for a while, alternating between the sauna on one side, showers on the other & the large communal space in the middle, I was guided off into an adjoining room for the next stage of the Turkish Bath experience. An enormous moustached Turkish Sumo-wrestler entered the room and proceeded to completely squash me onto a marble slab. Apparently this is what the locals call massage.
However this was just the prelude to the real torture, administered by another equally moustached but even larger Turkish sumo. This involves being scrubbed down with what seems to be steel wool, which was quite painful, and watching my skin flake off in large chunks was also not pleasant. As a finale, I am doused with several buckets of near boiling water. I emerged much flatter, with glowing red skin and minus the suntan I had been working on for 3 months.
I wonder if they do accupuncture too?
