"Goreme Cappadocia" Goreme by Ramonq

The unbelievably fantastic rock formations around the Goreme Valley in the Cappadocian region of Turkey is one of country's most visited inland site. I felt like I stumbled into the set of the George Lucas' sci-fi movie, Star Wars when I arrived here by bus. The area is simply studded with hundreds of thousands of these huge pointy rocks called tufas. Geologists believe that these curious geological formations were the product of millions of years of soil erosion caused by wind and rain before man walked on the planet.

They say that the numerous tufas were actually petrified volcanic ash that were spewed, 30 million years ago, from the three volcanoes that surround the Cappadocian region and blanketed the low-lying valleys including Goreme Valley. The ash solidified into soft chalky stone called tufas. Because they're porous, the tufas gradually eroded by the wind and rain over eons of time, and hence formed these fantastic geological formation that we now see. Some of these pointy tufas have boulders on their pinnacles and they were caused by the slower erosion of the more solid boulders over the porous tufas underneath.

These tufas with boulders on top of them are called "fairy chimneys" or peribacasi as the Turks call them. There's a valley in the Cappadocian region that's full of these "fairy chimneys". Tourist guides jokingly call it "Bill Clinton Valley" because of their erect phallic shapes, a tribute to the irrepressible American president.

The Cappadocian region is vast and you'll definitely need transportation to cover the entire region and see the different types of rock formation below the valleys.

Aside from its interesting geological history, Cappadocia also has some fascinating human history to be told. One of the world's earliest civilisation were spawned here during the Bronze age by the Hatti tribe. They were then conquered by the more sophisticated Hitttite empire around 2000BC. The people started carving underground cities from the soft tufas and lived here undisturbed for generations. The Persians came, then Alexander the Great's Empire, and then the Romans yet the Cappadocians lived in these artificial caves.

St. Paul converted the Cappadocians to Christianity and the early Christians burrowed deeper into the tufas and fashioned elaborate underground chuches and monasteries. There are hundreds of these underground churches around Cappadocia and a few of them still have frescoes preserved on their walls depicting Christian teachings and symbolisms. Some of the frescoes were defaced as a result of the iconoclastic controversy by the early Christians which forbidded images other than the crucifix.

The arrival of Islam in Turkey forced the Cappadocians to move deeper underground, even making room for barns to protect their animals. They built elaborate ventilation systems and bakeries and churches. It was virtually an underground town hidden and protected by rolling boulders that block the main entrances.

Nowadays, the area is invaded by foreign travellers. The town of Goreme is like a "Flintstones" town with hotels and restaurants burrowed into the tufas. The town has a relaxed village atmosphere and many travellers decide to extend their stay in Goreme. I don't blame them. The cave rooms in Goreme are cool and comfortable with the latest mod cons. Yes, there's electricity! I begin to wonder, if only the early Cappadocians could see how the latest invaders live now, they'd have a fit.

• Pros:Fantastic human and geological history
• Cons:too vast to see all
• In a nutshell:Tufas, tufas and more tufas