This morning was a special treat for about half our group- optional hot air balloon ride! Because I’m cheap and also a little scared of heights, I did not go. However, here student Adam shares about his experience!
From Adam:
"On the last day of our trip some of us got up bright and early at 3:30 am to ride a hot air balloon as the sun rose. 28 people to a balloon, we got into the basket and soared up high into the air above the scene of landscape of Cappadocia. We flew low into valleys and high above the fairy chimneys along with over a hundred other balloons. After an hour of beautiful views as the sun and hot fire of the ballons lit up the sky, the pilot landed us in a field on an awaiting truck bed. We celebrated with champagne, cheering the traditional Turkish toast “şerefe!”, and that was all before breakfast!"
After our hot air ballooners returned and we all ate breakfast, we headed to the Göreme open air museum. This is the site of a Christian community that formed in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. (No small community– by the 4th century, this area (Cappadocia) came to be known as the region of three church fathers: Basil the Great, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nanzianzus!) As we learned yesterday, these caves were primarily formed through volcanic activity millions of years ago, which deposited layers of soft tuff, a type of porous rock. Over centuries, wind and water erosion sculpted the landscape into the shapes seen today. Human inhabitants further modified these natural formations by carving out caves and tunnels to create homes, churches, and monasteries, because the softness of the tuff allowed for relatively easy excavation. Many of these cave dwellings and churches were multi-story, and made up of complex systems of rooms. There are also niches for shelves, and “columns” that are cave material. So, these caves are not only a marvel of natural beauty but also a remarkable example of human adaptation to the environment. This area in particular, the site of the open air museum, was not used residentially, rather for worship and prayer. Those who lived here were connected to the worship sites, as ones living in the monastery or otherwise. The caves that are visible today are those from the 9th-11th century.
Unfortunately, no photography of the paintings inside the churches are allowed. They are very sensitive to light. Today, art history students in Turkey do the repainting and restoring. I will insert a photo (not mine) below of a the ceiling from the “Dark Church,” so called because the lack of light has kept the beautiful blue paintings of our scriptural stories preserved. The photo after that (also not mine) will be from the Buckle Church, of the carved architecture. These are fascinating, and so well preserved.
After our visit to Göreme, we had lunch in Avanos. This area is known for its ceramics tradition, passed down for generations in families, thanks to the Kızılırmak, or Red River, which flows through the town. This river, Turkey’s longest, deposits rich red clay along its banks. This clay is used for much more than pottery that is nice to look at or ceramic tiles to walk on– it is also functional! At our lunch, we had chicken or beef stew that was cooked in sealed clay pots with bread on top. This meal (Çömlek Kebabı) takes four hours to make. When it is ready, after the fire around it has stopped, the waiter takes a knife and tapped the side to pull the lid off the small pot. Inside was our stew!
We continued to learn about pottery after lunch at Ömürlü Seramik, a workshop that is in its seventh generation of ownership. They make beautiful pottery, including the fantastical shaped jug, with a hole in the middle! We were treated to a demonstration of how this jug is made– it is a model that has been around since the Hittites, and only 10 or 11 masters can make these reliably every time. Then, I got to try my hand at some pottery! I am definitely not up to any type of standard… but it was fun!
About ten of us then went on a hike at Zelve Paşabağlar Örenyeri, which is sort of like another open air museum/nature reserve. It was so fun to be able to crawl into the caves, although I wonder whether allowing tourists to walk all over in such a way, to the detriment of the physical history, makes up for the education we receive by doing so. But I have to admit it was really cool!
Because this is our last night, our group then ate dinner together and had one final meeting where we shared a point about the trip that was especially meaningful for us. I shared something I heard from one of our guides– that the artifacts we see today are from those wealthy enough to have had something to leave behind. It makes me wonder about this idea that the powerful are the ones who write history. Who are those in our lifetimes who are the ones in power writing history? Whose artifacts will be found in 2,000 years (if humans survive that long at all)? I want to share this poem that a member of our group read, about those in history who are not the ones with artifacts in the museums, or names in history books, but are the builders of the world that we live in today.
"A Worker Reads History" (1936) by Bertold Brecht
Who built the seven gates of Thebes?
The books are filled with names of kings.
Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?
And Babylon, so many times destroyed.
Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses,
That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it?
In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished
Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome
Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song.
Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend
The night the seas rushed in,
The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves.
Young Alexander conquered India.
He alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Was there not even a cook in his army?
Phillip of Spain wept as his fleet
was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears?
Frederick the Greek triumphed in the Seven Years War.
Who triumphed with him?
Each page a victory
At whose expense the victory ball?
Every ten years a great man,
Who paid the piper?
So many particulars.
So many questions
Our travel day is tomorrow. We will leave, some of us separately, some of us together, and will go back to our lives. Hopefully we will carry with us those things that we learned here– the places and people that made our minds and spirits and bodies (all that food!) grow. Hopefully we will return to our communities ready to share the experiences that we have had, and ready to use our insights and our questions and our joys with them. I am feeling so much gratitude for all that I have experienced on this trip. Thank you for reading along– know that there was far more that we experienced that never made it onto this blog. Ask us about it! We would love to tell you.
In peace,
Liza
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