Turkey 🇹🇷 ~Cappadocia “Ballooning in Gorme National Park”
From the air, we overlooked the Sword Valley and Rose Valley. These valleys are where most of the Balloons tend to fly over, at low altitude. The cave dwellings and rock formations here are incredible and you can compose some amazing shots flying over.
Gorme National Park and Rock Sites of Cappadocia are all part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site
Bucket List: Cappadocia Sunrise Ballooning ✅
Our sunrise balloon ride went very well, and we could not have had better weather. We were pleased to see so many balloons on the ground, getting filled and ready to launch. It was a symphony of hot air balloons rising in the dark, but glowing when the flames would flare up inside the balloons. The wind was so perfect, we were able to get up off the ground before sunrise, and rise about the Fairy Chimneys, which are numerous throughout the Canyon parkland. From there, we got to dip down into a narrow gorge and float back up and out. Before we landed, we had flown over the hotel we stayed at, too. It was a magical, magical experience!
Unusual honeycombed boulders rise from the plateau of Central Anatolia and have, over the centuries, served as the backdrop for a history, equally as fascinating. The region was once the heartland of the Hittite Empire and later gave rise to some of Christianity’s earliest philosophers.
The region’s history begins at the eruption of a series of volcanoes that include Mount Erciyes and Hasan that sculpted, along with air and rain, the unique, unworldly looking landscape filled with mountain ridges, valleys and pinnacles known as “Fairy Chimneys” that stretch as high as 130 feet up in the sky. When the volcanoes erupted and spread their thick ash across this region, the ash turned into soft rock that solidified and very thick. From that soft rock, otherwise known as tuff, the wind and rain of millions of years crafted the ever beautiful rock formations of Cappadocia.
*Three to four million years ago a series of volcanic eruptions shook the Central Anatolian area, forming what we now know as the Cappadocia Fairy Chimneys
*Cappadocia’s landscape was formed by volcanic erosion. Thick ash solidified into a soft rock, called tuff, and over time the tuff rocks eroded with wind and water, creating the iconic Fairy Chimneys we see today.
*Cappadocia spans a distance of 3,107 miles and sits on an altitude of over 621 feet, cutting through three Anatolian provinces: Nevsehir, Keyseri and Nigde.
*The name “Cappadocia” derives from the Persian word Katpaktukya, which means “the land of beautiful horses,” because in ancient times, the region was known for its equine offering. Horses are still important to the locals who call Cappadocia home and they also offer an alternative mode of transport for visitors.
*There are a number of underground cities in Cappadocia; some connected by a network of tunnels. These subterranean settlements were made possible thanks to the pliability of the soft rock. Many are open to visitors, however, a lot of the land in the area is still owned privately.
*There are as many as 600 churches carved from the soft Cappadocian rock, and possibly many more that have not yet been discovered. These churches date back to Medieval times and display beautiful painted frescoes, which have retained an amazing amount of color and detail over the centuries, though some painted figures have had their eyes scratched out by superstitious locals afraid of the Evil Eye.
*The village of Göreme serves as the region’s main tourist center and is also one of the few Cappadocian settlements still inhabited today. Christians gave the town of Göreme its name meaning “you cannot see here,” as they hid in the area during the Arab invasion.
*The Göreme Open-Air Museum encompasses the best known religious complexes in the area. Alongside the other rock sites of Cappadocia, it was enlisted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.
Music concerts are often held in the surrounding cave buildings of Cappadocia, including the week-long Cappadocia Music Festival which showcases choirs and orchestras.
*The region of Cappadocia is a large grape producer and it’s believed that wine-making has a long history here. There’s a number of wine-tasting shops where visitors can sample the goods and in recent years wines from the region have won international awards.
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Hello and Welcome to our Travel Blog Website, We enjoy writing about our experiences and taking photos of our adventuring along the way. Our names are: Daryl and Pen, but Daryl calls me “Bunny.” We met, quite randomly, whilst both… Read More
Wow, fantastic, would love to do this
It was a real treat. We felt lucky to have gotten to do this. I love Ballooning and photography. I am sure you would love this, Judy!