Cappadocia

Again, I'm at a loss of words because of how incredibly stunning a place can be...

What can be said about a city made of "fairy chimneys" that took 60 million years of volcanic activity,  time, pressure, a dash of persecution to create? 

This is Cappadocia—home to the incredible formations know as fairy chimneys. They were naturally formed, then sometime after the time of Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered the land and called it "Katpatuka" (meaning "land of good horses") there has been so much human activity that its hard to keep track of. And that was 2,500 years ago when the Persian Empire took over these lands. 

Since those days, the Christians built monasteries here and hid out from persecution...
 
The Silk Road passed directly through the caves via the tunnels of Avanos....

And nowadays most people think of Cappadocia as a hot air bonanza! And it is very striking to get up at 5am and watch about a hundred of the giant balloons surf the twilight rays.

 

 

(taking a break from the 95 degree heat!)

 

(we stayed at a cave hotel with this friendly guard dog named "Almond") 

So now you know a bit of the history, and a bit of the current trends of hot air ballooning...but there is one think you also need to know. Turkey brought the legend Shaquille O'Neal over here for a publicity reasons, and while he was here he ended up with a hair transplant (see video below 🤣)

NOW you know everything you need to know. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1s8p24o/turkcell_shaquille_oneal_playing_in_a_turkish/