Located high in central Turkey, Cappadocia is a large region with hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters. Many thousands of years ago, volcanic ash covered the land before humans lived there. After a long time, the ash turned into a kind of soft rock. Today, some of the natural rock formations reach forty meters into the air.
Much later, more than two thousand years ago, people began to cut homes into the soft rock, both above and below the ground.
In fact, homes were not the only things that people created there. They also made stables for animals, places to keep food and other supplies, and places to worship and pray. There are hundreds of these cave rooms that form entire towns, both high in the sky and deep below the ground (some as many as eight floors under the earth). Although many of the caves are now museums, some people still continue to live there as they did in the past.
Long ago, water and wind helped to create the wonders of Cappadocia, but now people are trying to save it from being destroyed by the same water and wind because they want Cappadocia to last for thousands of more years. In 1985, it became a World Heritage site, which means that it is one of the most special places in the world. Since 1983, several movies have been filmed there, including a 2014 film that won an award at that year’s Cannes Film Festival. If you decide to visit this popular tourist area, the main nearby town is Goreme, which offers tours, guides and even hot air balloons for you to fly quietly over the land and admire the amazing view.