Turkiye 2023: The Spectacular Scenery Continues (Cappadocia)

Day 11 continues with more sightseeing featuring these incredible rock formations of Cappadocia. We left the carpet weaving place and stopped at Pigeon Valley, so named after the many man-made dovecotes that were carved into the rocks. Since the ancient times, pigeons have been used for food and fertilizer for the infertile soil.

Pigeon Valley is a very popular hiking spot. However, we were limited to just sightseeing and exploring this small area here.

Also in this region, they decorate the trees with Nazar amulets (known here are evil eye) to ward off and protect the community from negative energy. Some trees are also decorated with other wishes or symbols in the tradition of Wishing Trees or Nahil which was common in Ottoman festivals.

The free bathroom is across the street. It's housed in the jewelry store. You bet I took some time gawking at the beautiful gemstone jewelries, but I did not part with any of my greenbacks.

Next stop is in Goreme where we saw more incredible rock formations.

Afterwards for lunch we went to a restaurant in town. We were seated on the second floor balcony and ordered the specialty of the house, which is the testi kebabi, or pottery kebab. The meat is cooked in sealed pottery. The presentation is top notch, but the dish is way better. It was excellent, very flavorful and the meat was tender. Honestly, I could eat the whole thing by myself.

View from the restaurant's balcony.

We hurriedly ate our lunch, so that we could make time to check out the town.