In Central Anatolia within the heart of Turkey is a remarkable and captivating landscape, Cappadocia, a region mainly known for its strange looking volcanic rock landscapes. In some areas it looks almost extraterrestrial and extends for around four thousand square kilometres.

The geological and scenic structure of Cappadocia was mainly formed by the interaction of two powerful natural forces. The first was created thirty million years ago when the region contained a number of highly active volcanoes that covered the land with ash. The ash compacted and was transformed into tuff stone. The second was the mighty power of erosion that gradually eroded the tuff stone and formed an amazing variety of rock formations..

The Fairy Chimneys of Devrent Vadisi date back to the original inhabitants of Cappadocia who believed that the rocks were chimneys which belonged to fairies who lived beneath the earth’s surface, thus Cappadocia is still known as Land Of The Fairy Chimneys.

Pasabagi, the Valley Of Monks, also contains a large variety of fairy chimneys and other tuff cones as well as traces of human habitation. Monks and hermits once dug into the rock to create a living space within the natural tuff cones.

Between Göreme and Çavusin is yet another area of incredible rock formations, Gül Vadisi, Valley Of Roses, where the origin of the fairy chimneys is plain to see. It seems as though the rock needles grow directly out of the slope and the various layers of stone are highly visible.

The history of both the upsurge and decline of Early Christianity is inseparably intertwined with the geology of this region. Cappadocia is an enchanting world of stone full of ancient history and natural beauty.