The Fairy Chimneys of Göreme

Fairy Chimneys

Hoodoos at Night; use your imagination ;)

One of the most amazing things about Göreme, as well as the entire region of Cappadocia, are the fairy chimneys. Fairy chimneys, or hoodoos are formed in an area comprised mainly of compressed volcanic ash, also called tuff. Eventually cracks in the soil allow most of the tuff to be eroded, except for where a more erosion-resistant boulder is. These boulders protect an amount of tuff below from the rain (almost like an umbrella). This causes a totem-pole like mound of ash to form. This is called a hoodoo, or fairy chimney. Eventually the ash is eroded so much that the boulder above falls off and the rest of the hoodoo ultimately erodes away. Hoodoos appear all over the world, including Moab in Utah, Taiwan, France, and the Siberian hoodoos in Đavolja Varoš (Devil's Town) are nominees for the Seven Wonders of the Natural World campaign.

Even as I write this, I am surrounded by fairy chimneys. A particularly astounding thing about all of these fairy chimneys is that carved into the face of all of them you can see little windows and openings, created by the people of this area a long time ago.

A hoodoo house as seen from our hotel

Göreme

It feels weird being in Turkey because I am so used to hearing English but the main language that is heard here is Turkish. Whenever I listen to myself talk, it sounds harsh and loud, but whenever I hear other tourists speaking English, it sounds comforting and pleasant.

A thing I am not used to seeing is all of the street animals here. In Göreme, there are a very large number of homeless dogs and cats. Almost every time we go to a restaurant, we get a dog or cat begging for food. It is very hard to see them because a lot of them look unhealthily thin and some of them have injuries inflicted by other animals.