ROBERT HARDING PICTURE LIBRARY LTD / TURKEYPORTAL.COM FROM BODRUM, we also make a day trip to Ephesus with our driver and guide picking us up early in the morning for the two-hour drive, past pine forests and olive trees, to the marvellously preserved ruins of the ancient Greek/Roman city. We see the prostitute’s footprint embedded in a marble street slab that points the way to her house, rows of public marble toilets and the grand Celsus Library façade. In the noblemen’s terrace houses, we watch archaeologists piece together the largest jigsaw puzzle in the world – recreating the rooms from marble pieces of floors and walls. Elsewhere, blood-red poppies bloom among the ruins. And if you listen carefully, the breezes carry the imagined laughter and chatter of Romans bartering with shopkeepers on the marble streets. Cappadocia comes toward the end of our journey. Rivalled only by Africa as the world’s best place to soar in a balloon, it’s also known for its underground cave cities and fresco-painted, rock-cut churches. Beginning in the 4th century, early Christians escaping persecution tunnelled out underground cave cities in the special “tufa” rock found in the lava valleys here. The rock is soft and easy to cut, only hardening when it comes in contact with air. It’s believed there are some 150 to 200 underground cities (housing up to 30,000 people each), though only two are open to the public. Kaymakli Underground City has over 100 passages connecting eight levels of underground cave bedrooms, storerooms, kitchens and a church. Even though we have to crouch down almost on our knees to squeeze through its cool, dimly lit tunnels, fears of claustrophobia prove unfounded. We can stand up in the cave rooms, and original vertical ventilation shafts circulate fresh air. Still, it’s remarkable that people could live underground for up to six months at a time here. To fend off enemy attacks, they could plug tunnel entrances with the large round millstones we see. To view the finest of Cappadocia’s rock-cut churches, we walk about the Goreme Open-Air Museum. The churches in this UNESCO World Heritage Site were carved into the rock walls above-ground between the 10th and 12th centuries, probably as part of a large monastic complex. The Dark Church (so named because little sunlight penetrates inside) has beautifully painted frescoes of Christ’s life on the pillars and columns supporting its ceiling domes. A kitchen-cumrefectory is also interesting, with its long stone dining table that could seat 50 monks. And then there is the treat of hiking through some of the valleys which the balloons glide over. The Ihlara Valley surprises with a lush riverside trail. The cliffs on either side are inlaid with 120 simple rock-cut churches and green river frogs, the size of your fist, belch loudly. But our standout memory is stumbling out of the Pasabag Valley, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, to sip homemade wine with a retired farmer who is proud to show us his orchard and small vineyard. One more wonder, in a land brimming with so many wonders. To learn more about Turkey, call your Cruise Holidays vacation expert. Cave dwellings and churches carved out of soft volcanic tufa formations, known as fairy chimneys near Pasabag. Below: Elaborate frescoes adorn the interior of the rock-cut Dark Church in the Goreme Open-Air Museum. CRUISE HOLIDAYS 47