Cappadocia Day 2 Sights - Open Air Museums

Lots to see and do here in Cappadocia.  Our lodging hosts used this map to point out what they think are the highlights (we lodge at the Red "X").  With fair weather, today we choose the "open air museums" - park-like spots where there are concentrations of hoodoos (the pointy little mountains), some with human modifications from the olden times.
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We drive about an hour to the area just south of Avanos (upper right quadrant).

We enter and exit through the "gift shop"...

...and walk up to get the high overview:

Standing on piles of lava and ash shaped by the elements - volcanic stuff from millions of years ago.

The doings of wind, rain, and snow carved out the in-between stuff and left the "fairy chimney towers" (hoodoos).

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They're like people with big gowns loitering about.

It's warmer again today, and the Spring flowers are out and about,

Here's a water fall that clings to the inside of the half domed formation.  And three "blokes" with hats...

...and then seven more "blokes" come to greet us.

​It's really a massive garden of mother nature's monoliths - in this "museum" there's a lot less human carve-outs of the formations than in other areas of Cappadocia.

Now on down the road to another open air museum - here we will see a concentration of churches and hermitages carved out of the formations and cliffs.

Here is a gathering place where monks sat down to eat - see the frescoed image of the "Last Supper".

Of course, the steel stairs is a modern addition - steel/iron didn't come along for another 1500 years after this church was carved out.

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Here I am!

One last look from the parking lot, before departing:

​We make one last stop today before heading "home".

The 'Three Beauties' fairy chimneys, thought to be named after Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, located just outside Ürgüp.

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Our hosts, Adin and Hatice, cook one more special meal for us - a fish stew - very tasty as you can imagine.  And with a distilled (Raky) beverage traditionally consumed with a fish (Balek) meal - distilled grapes with aniseed flavoring (think black licorice).