For the second time in my life I’m traveling the Silk Road. Saturday we struck out for Kapadokya
(Cappidocia), a province in central Turkey. We stopped along the way at
Agzikarahan Kervansarayi. A kervansarayi (or in English, caravan surai)
was a stopping point along the Silk Road. Caravans of 300+ would stop for
days at a time. In today's world we'd call it a gas station/hotel/Target
combo. It reminded me of a mini-castle. There was nothing
left of this one except the stone structure but it was pretty amazing to be
standing in such an ancient place. Not the first time on this trip I
strolled through a place so ancient I couldn’t grasp the actuality of it and
stood there like a senseless fool saying, “this is crazy, this amazing” over
and over.
Next
stop was Tuz Gülü (Salt Lake). Tuz Gülü is the second largest salt lake
in the world. Our group joined other tourists walking in the lake; the
deepest part is only 120 cm. The bottom of the lake is salt, not sand, and
it’s not like table salt, it’s salt rocks. Walking into the lake is like
walking on gravel but we endured this texture for the experience (and free
pedicure- minus the polish - after exiting the lake my feet and calves felt
crazy soft!) Turkey gets 60% of it’s salt directly from this lake, which
had 33% salt saturation.
The thing I love about Turkey, excuse me, one of the many things I love
about Turkey, is nothing is blocked off. At Tuz Gülü we just marched
right in. At the museums, you can touch
everything. In Konya when Trent and I were in the midst one of our many
laughing hysterics, I accidently took a laugh break on a 3,000-year-old
rock. Which just made us laugh harder at the fact that I was
resting my forehead on an ancient rock… There are many open-air museums
where you walk among the ruins, artifacts, and excavations. It’s nothing
like Western preservation; everything is open and available for the people to
interact with. PLUS, there isn’t some commercialized shop at every
stop. Yes, there are markets and shops at the sites but they are all
local products and local vendors. It’s refreshing.
Our hotel in Kapadokya is bananapants! First off, it’s in a town
called Mustafapasha. Mustafapasha, that rolls off the tongue in such a
great way. It’s a Tuscan villa in the middle of Anatolia. In truth,
it’s Greek not Italian. A-ma-zing! While seeing the sites in
Kapadokya, we visit an open-air museum of ancient churches and climb over,
under, and in between the Fairy Chimneys. Fairy Chimneys are volcanic
formations that look just like their name. We crawled/walked through the
underground city of Kaymakli, used for protection from the Persians, not for
everyday living. It was intelligently built with a ventilation system and
several rooms dedicated to making wine during their stay underground.
On Monday we left for the Hittite capital, Hattusa. As we drive
through the Turkish countryside, the scenery is enough to bring tears to my
eyes. Literally. I’m overwhelmed with emotions and can feel my
heart swell. Beautiful plains of vivid, buttery yellow grasses spread
across the open fields while vibrant poppies line the roadside.
Low-hanging clouds rest upon stunted mountains in the distance. We stop
at one point so sheep can cross the road. I’m in a picture right out of
National Geographic.
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