Cappadocia without balloons, a photo from Nevsehir, Central Anatolia

Photographer's Note

Regular visitors to the TE gallery will recognize this view as from somewhere in Cappadocia, a region in central Turkey famous for its strange rocks and caves often used by Christian monks between the 4th and 13th centuries A.D.

Since 1985 Cappadocia is registered by the UNESCO as a world heritage site and has in recent years received huge numbers of foreign tourists.

But in 1970, when I travelled through Turkey for the first time (along with a friend), Turkey was not a major destination for foreign tourists and Cappadocia was largely unknown.

But I had heard of the rocks and caves containing churches from more than 1000 years ago, so when we arrived in the city of Kayseri we asked people we met if they knew how we could go there. There were no travel agencies offering sightseeing tours.

With the assistance of several persons we made an arrangement with a taxi driver to show us the most interesting places.

We spent a few hours in the scorching heat climbing the rocks and visiting a number of cave churches (I named seven in my diary). I was overwhelmed by the high quality of the paintings in some of these churches and found most of them in a surprisingly good condition.

Reading about Cappadocia today it is clear that the conditions were very different 52 years ago. There was no ticket office (free entrance to the entire area), no guards or guides and absolutely no hot-air balloons for sightseeing tours. We only saw about half a dozen other tourists and there is no mention in my diary of hotels, restaurants or caf廥. The roads were all unpaved and dusty and most "traffic" consisted of donkeys carrying heavy burdens.

There are two photos in the WS. They were all taken with a rather primitive camera and scanned from Agfacolor CT18 slides.

pajaran, Fis2, ktanska, ikeharel, jhm, pierrefonds, PaulVDV, adramad, mcmtanyel, COSTANTINO, clic, jean113, ChrisJ has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

pajaran (116041) 2022-01-06 0:25

Pozdrav.

Interesantan i lep pogled, dobar tekst ...
Lepo brdo sa pecinama i prostorijama koje su uradili vernici, dobro pokazano sa lepim bojama i kontrastom.
Dobar rad, lepa fotografija.
Lepo secanje.

Zelim vam lep i uspesan dan, sve najbolje.
Pajka

Silvio1953 (221771) 2022-01-06 0:59

Ciao Gert, great view of fantastic cave, lovely composition with beautiful natural frame, wonderful colors, splendid light, fine details and excellent clarity, very well done, my friend, ciao Silvio

Fis2 (170919) 2022-01-06 1:09

Witaj Gert! my neighbour today :)!
Another curious photo from Your archive.
Interesting place, view makes impression.
I like composition and colors.
Natural framing makes impression.
Well done.
Good morning.
Krzysztof

lousat (139352) 2022-01-06 2:40

Hi Gert,it lacked all the comforts for the tourists, but surely you had the chance to know the real Cappadocia, without hot air balloons and restaurants, but which showed the true face not corrupted by tourism. Three beautiful photos of good quality, which show the "naturalness" of a mysterious and almost abandoned place. This region is always on my wishlist but who knows when I can go there. Thanks for the comment on my photo, I liked your joke that no one will ever build a church at the end of the Covid pandemic..ahaa .... Have a nice weekend,Luciano

ktanska (44832) 2022-01-06 2:49

Hej Gert,
Impressive view of these ancient caves shot though one opening. That makes a very nice frame. The film couldn't quite cope with brightness differences and I see you have done some processing to get details out of the darkness.
Kari

ikeharel (113483) 2022-01-06 5:18

A view through the ancient carved "window", superbly managed its DOF, Gert.
Contrast and colors from a film picture fairly saved when scanned.
Good afternoon,
Ike

pierrefonds (114584) 2022-01-06 6:22

Hi Gert,

You had a good idea using the window to frame the rock formation with caves. The point of view is show3ing the details of the rock formation. The light is giving good colors rendering. Have a nice day.

Pierre

jhm (211736) 2022-01-06 9:04

Hello Gert,

I've different pictures seen of the rocks as churches.
You write excellent a good note, but as journalist has you a very do you have a big advantage, I learn every day also when I am 80 year.
Three valuable photos, indeed, today are the financial interests big for Turkey.
Your picture Gert, your main picture with blue frame and nice look through are certainly number one.
Two other pictures are real a nice added value.
Your scan work is superb.
Very well done, TFS.

Best regards,
John.

jmdias (115312) 2022-01-06 9:41

gert

yes, in those days we had a more authentic experience visiting such places, but the price was the lack of comfort. I visited many famous places and many lost treasures too. nice images. I liked more the first WS with that curious repetition of modern houses near the canyon.

take care

jorge

dedee (3113) 2022-01-06 10:31

Hi Gert
A very good image which shows very clearly the strange rock formations. Using the rocks as a window worked very well.
David

kasianowak (17676) 2022-01-06 11:21

Hi Bert
Much as I enjoyed my balloon flight, I feel privileged to see these views of unspoilt Cappadocia. What an adventure. You must have felt immense satisfaction for reaching your destination.
Best wishes
Kasia

PaulVDV (63010) 2022-01-06 12:10

Hello Gert,
All three photos are very beautiful and show us well how special the area of Cappadocia is.
Difficult to have a preference for one picture. They're three excellent contributions of your series.
In 1983 there were small hotels (guesthouses/pensions) in different places in Cappadocia.
I arrived in the bus station of 鈜g𧩓 where a man who owned a guest house was looking for arriving travellers. With his dolmuş he took me and some others to his pension in Mustafapaşa (about 6 kilometers from 鈜g𧩓).
With several others we had the dolmuş for us the following days to tour around in Cappadocia.
I seem to remember that we ate at the guest house. I don't remember whether an entrance ticket had to be bought or not.
No one had even heard of balloon flights at the time. I would love to take a balloon flight in this area, although I have heard several times that they are excessively expensive.
So far I have only made one balloon ride (in Laos) and I really enjoyed it.
Did you also visit the 'underground cities' Kaymakli and Derinkuyu?
Best regards, Paul

adramad (73030) 2022-01-06 12:47

Hi Gert.
These three compositions from Cappadocia seem wonderful to me, with a good quality for the time, but the best thing is that we can visualize this magical place with all its natural essence.
I visited Cappadocia for the first time in 1985 and I was dazzled, my second trip was in 1993 and where I had seen everything open, in conjunction with nature, now I found iron gates to enter and lots of stalls, a horror, it had lost its essence.
These photos remind me of how I saw it for the first time and I love them.
Photos very well done. I like it
Enjoy a good day and with great care! I have been having it and yet yesterday I tested positive for Covid.
Very best regards.
Luis.

mcmtanyel (68679) 2022-01-06 18:05

Hello Gert,
I love such photos taken through openings, especially when the view is so nice.
Regards,
MT

ifege (48217) 2022-01-06 19:09

Hi Gert
You were a very early visitor to Cappadocia and nearly 20 years before I went there. The main photo is a good one though a cave window. And 2 more useful ones in the WS.
cheers
Ian

COSTANTINO (116644) 2022-01-06 23:01

Hello my dearest Gert
have a pleasant week end
the temperature yesterday was
about 20 degrees and Greek people
came out for a walk,to enjoy the
time to accept sunrays!!!!but this
was too dangerous because of covid 19...
everybody left his house and went out!!!!
I had the feeling that it saw spring
and the situation was really normal
as two years ago without covid 19...
your photo has been taken perfectly
under your personal experience...
I had never visited Cappadocia
but i would like to do so...
thanks for your useful notes
regards
costantino

Gerrit (62042) 2022-01-07 3:26

Hello Gert,
wonderful photo. The framing is perfect and the view over the inhabited mountain is a lot better indeed without balloons.the colors are fantastic.
Thanks and regards,
Gerrit

clic (76) 2022-01-07 7:55

Hallo Gert
I tip my hat to the columnist who assembled the scarce pieces of the information puzzle with the aim of reaching this abandoned strange world.
I might be wrong but I consider you took place in one of the facing caves, seeking for the ideal way of adding artistry to this mighty piece of history which reminds me of the strange works of the Sand Martin Swallows.
I saw once many holes on a dumped sand mound through which nesting Swallows flew in and out to feed their young.
This masterly-captured piece of anthology is newsworthy!
Basta halsningar

emka (158204) 2022-01-07 15:55

Hi Gert,

I was in Cappadocia in early nineties. It was known already. Later I was for the second time a few years ago, it was crowded. But I managed to hike around alone. Nice picture through the window. Have you really climbed this hill?
Best regards MAlgo

CMJC (5097) 2022-01-08 5:13 [Comment]

Show Comment

GyurMaster (24840) 2022-01-08 9:10

Dear Gert,

I was bored by the photos with the balloons anyway. :) Joking apart this is a new perspective for me and a well spotted and framed photo. The only think I would criticise is your effort to try to save the entrance. I know that it is hard save underexposed areas on a film. Maybe it would look better in darker or if you applied selective desaturation on them.

Best Wishes,
Gy.

jean113 (27899) 2022-01-08 11:29

Hello Gert, all three shots are worthy of being a main post.
The main post immediately catches the eye in the thumbnails with the stone framing the view across to one of the strange rock formations.
It is an incredible landscape, and in many ways you were fortunate to see it before it became so touristy.
The quality of the shots is excellent.
Interesting and informative notes.
Kind regards, Jean.

ChrisJ (171888) 2022-01-09 5:01

Ciao Gert

Luckily the site is big enough to walk away from large tour groups, and there is plenty in the region to keep a solo traveller occupied for days. They now have the red, blue and green tours, which run shuttle buses to interesting locations all around Goreme. Nice use of the weathered window or door as a frame. Tfs!