The Cappadocia region is a popular tourist destination, thanks to its age-old houses carved in soft tuff-stone pilars. 

This peculiar landscape was formed by the erosion of layers of soft lava and ashes that were deposited by heavy volcanic activities 60 million years ago. 

 

In the bronze age Cappadocia was known as Hatti, homeland for the mighty Hittite Empire.

 

In 63 AD Cappadocia became a Roman province and the local Greeks soon converted to Christianity. They carved out huge underground cities and churches like the one in Kaymakli. 

 

The Byzantine era ended in 1071 when Seljuks conquered what is now Turkey. 

 

The Treaty of Lausanne defined the borders of the new Turkish Republic and included a population exchange clause. So in 1925 the Cappadocian Greeks were forced to leave the region where they had lived for almost 2 millennia.

 

We visited Cappadocia in August 1996 and toured the area between Goreme, Zelve, Uchisar andNefsehir.