Sydney’s Corner: Goreme Turkey

A week ago, we were in Goreme, Turkey.  Goreme was so cool. I thought I would tell you a little about it.  First you might want to know what Goreme looks like.  Goreme is like a Turkish mini version of New Mexico in the United States.  Goreme is deserty looking like New Mexico.  But the coolest part of Goreme, besides the desert, is the caves.  Before we start talking about Goreme, you might want to know that Goreme is in the Cappadocia region of Turkey. Cappadocia means, “Land of beautiful horses.”  I kind of like that name.

Caves of Goreme

First let’s talk about the caves.  Years ago people settled in Cappadocia.  But Goreme was in a desert.  So no trees will grow there,  But Goreme had lots of cliffs. The people decided to carve their houses into the cliffs.  The caves keep you cool in the summer.  Did you know this?  In Goreme there is a museum called the Open Air Museum.  The museum has a bunch of caves that you can explore and it tells a little about the caves. Mostly the museum has cave churches. A lot of the churches date back to the 10th ,11th , and 12th century. The museum has a few house caves. You really need to see the cave tables. The tables are soooooo cool. The tables are long and carved of out of the wall of the cave.  Just imagine a King’s table except made of stone.  You also need to see the oven and the stove and grape hole squisher.  The grape hole squisher was used to make grape juice and wine.  You also need to see the pigeon boxes. The pigeons were used for entertainment, fertilizer, and food.

Underground City Of Derinkuyu

We saw the underground city of Derinkuyu. I am going to tell you about the underground city.  It is like a city, but underground.  Do you know how it works?  I will tell you.  In wartimes when an army came to attack the villagers hide underground.  They would live there for months at a time.  It must be pretty gloomy down there. It is always dark and sometimes dripping water. Here are some facts about the underground city. The underground city is multi level. It has sixteen levels, but you can only see 8 of the 16 levels. The city held 20,000 people. Now that is a lot of people!  They had rooms for animals, churches, and homes.  They even had wells for water.  When you first enter the underground city you enter the kitchen first.  The passages in the underground city were skinny and low, but not for me.  My parents had to hunch over and do a duck walk in order to get through the passage.  The passages were tiny because it made it harder to attack.

Whirling Dervishes

The Whirling Dervishes, now that is something you don’t see every day. Do you know what they are? Well I will tell you. It is part of there religion. When they are spinning they have one hand pointed to earth and the other pointed to god.  The Dervishes never get dizzy.  I wish I could do that trick.  If you see the Dervishes perform, I dare you not to get tired because it is very soothing and trance like.  Kids aren’t allowed to see the performance, but I was.  They will probably let your kid in if he or she is quiet.  This is a good way to get your kid to be quiet for once.

Horseback riding

If you go to Goreme with kids then you should go horseback riding.  I went horseback riding and I galloped for the first time.  It was so fun.  There are lots of horse farms in Goreme.

One thing I wanted to do is go hot air balloon riding, but it cost too much.

Now you know all about Goreme, Turkey.