Tag Archives: cappadocia

Fairy Chimneys, Windy Days and Atatürk

Contrary to what many think, Cappadocia (Kapadokya in Turkish) is not a city or town. In fact, it is the name given to a region in central Turkey spanning across five major provinces. If you are planning to visits, some of the towns where you will visit and probably end up staying are Mustafapaşa, Ürgüp and Uçhisar. Larger cities in the region are Aksaray, Kayseri and Nevşehir. As you might already know, Cappadocia brings to mind the images of “Fairy chimneys” and hot air balloons. What are these chimneys exactly? Read on to find out!

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Cotton Castles and Whirling Dervishes

Last time, we covered the ancient city of Ephesus and had started on our journey to Pamukkale and then Konya. If you haven’t read it yet, no worries – I’ve provided all the links at the bottom of this post.

Our drive to Pamukkale took almost three hours. Our guide, Abdul told us that there were many thermal springs found in this area and the steam was used to generate electricity – we even saw some of these plants on the way. This region was also famous for its cotton – the cotton grown here is considered among the best in the world, only second to the famous Egyptian cotton. In fact, the name Pamukkale itself means “cotton castle” – but that is mainly attributed to the sight that we were about to see.  

Here is a map-view of the journey that we will be covering in today’s post

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