37) WEDNESDAY, 3 AUGUST 1977 : 31KMS. - GÖREME
On the way to visit GÖREME, we stopped at the “Open Palace”. From the exterior
features, it is a limestone hill, but there are hollow spaces
like rooms or halls in the interior that were eroded by wind or dig out by
people to provide themselves shelters as limestone texture is soft and erodes
easily. There are also pillars holding various ceiling
parts of the rooms . It looks like the interior of a constructed building in
general.
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| Open Palace - Photo : painter & draftsman / flickr (Bing images search) |
Art decor remains of the interior are drawings about Jesus or a picture of
Jesus ' crucifixion and motifs painted on
limestone pillars with colors prepared from vegetables , fruits and dust with
various colors . They are traces of Byzantine art, but we did not climb up to
have a close look at them but we saw them from outside only.
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| Photo : cappadocia blogspot.com / Bing images search |
I assumed that they are called “Open Palace” may be because the condition of
some rooms are opened with only 3 walls.
But who can tell for certain about the original state it was like. There
are also rocks or hill that look unique and strange in the vicinity.
Then we headed straight to NEVSEHIR and GÖREME which is a city located in the region
of lunar surface or in a twilight zone which
should (not) be so well known - a plateau area of CAPPADOCIA , formed by the
explosion of (now) inactive volcanoes named Erciyes Dag and Hasan Dag.
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| Göreme - Photo : Bing images search |
This region consists of limestone or sandstone which looks soft and erosion -prone. Volcanic eruptions and the
flow of molten rock or lava had caused
erosion into a form of cone pillars as well as canyons. Since there are different kinds of
minerals impurities in the rock that react with the air, resulting in bringing
up different colors - in red, gold, green to gray. It looks very strange and
and very beautiful.
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| Cappadocia - Photo : Nick Wadgey / Flickr (Bing images search) |
Since the 4th century - 13th century, the Christians in escaping the invasion of the Muslims were brought together to settle in the area. The church was built to conduct religious
activities and residential shelters were made
in accordance with the natural landscape of the area by taking advantage of the
limestone mountain and rocks, existing in form of a cone or pyramid.
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| Photo : hotelle.com / Bing images search |
They hewed soft stone into shape easily as chambers and made it in a typical building. Mostly there are two floors with connecting
rooms joined by the stairs, depending
on natural slope condition of the rocks that allowed. In
a way, it helped to camouflage by blending
in with nature in order to hide
themselves or escape the invasion of the
Muslims.
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| Photo : hotelle.com / Bing images search |
In some rooms or dens , there are
paintings on the walls -an image of Jesus and the Gospels , with natural colors
like what we find in the rooms of the "Open
Palace". I understood that these rooms
with images were a Christian church before and we had to climb through a small
opening to view these paintings but they were destroyed at faces and
eyes by scratches.
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| Photo : hirokiogawa.client / Bing images search |
It was the action of Islamic religious raging groups
in that era, whose belief in the god was
impersonal and could not be recorded or
stored there. Very unfortunately that
they were destroyed !
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| Remains of erosion - Tiger & Rabbit |
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| I found inscription of my nickname on the rock but I swear I did not inscribe it ! |
However, the exotic beauty of this
area and creativity in corresponding to
the region of human workmanship is indescribable beautiful . Nature has shown its
own incredibly creation. Some caves are
still in good condition, there are also people living in until the moment we
visited.
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| Göreme - Photo : Bing images search |
In the afternoon, I bought a stone vase,
type of translucent marble that has beautiful natural
pattern like flowers or golden yellow snow crystals from the shop in the area
not far from where we camped.
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| Göreme by night - Photo : people.virginia.edu / Bing images search |
At night, we were invited by local Turkish people to celebrate the traditional wedding
in front of the cave, looking like an inverted conical stone under
the light of torches and gas lamps. There was traditional music and
dance. Under the dark sky of the special night with twinkling stars and strangers
speaking different language, I could not avoid thinking of not
dreaming and how far I was away from my homeland. It is still quite far to travel..
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| Photo : hotelle.com / Bing images search |
Festive food that we had a chance to taste was curry with roast meat, stir fried vegetables with meat and curry powder served in a tray or large brass plate for the
circle seated guests. There was also a
thin sheet of dough baked on fire like naan or chapati, but I was not sure if
it made from rice or wheat flour.
Everybody used his fingers or a hand to pick up food from the same tray to mouth ,
eating deliciously. (But it should not be hygienic).
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| Photo : hotelle.com / Bing images search |
