Underground Turkey - July 4, 2010

This is what most people come to Cappadocia to see - Göreme.

I'm not sure how to describe it. The best I've come up with is the Flintstones on the moon.

Göreme is only 1.5 hours west of the industrial city Kayseri, but it might as well be on another planet.

During Roman and Byzantine times, Christianity flourished in the Cappadocian region from the 4th - 11th centuries.

When settlers arrived, they found this mysterious and awe-inspiring landscape and decided to chistle their homes and their churches into the volcanic rock and ash.

Several rock churches, like this one from the 10th century, contain frescoes depicting the life of Christ.

The Cappadocians also built an estimated 36 underground cities in the region, including the one I visited in the village of Derinkuyu.

The underground city is a seven-level maze of narrow, twisting passages and stairwells, which would be a claustrophobic's worst nightmare.

During peaceful times, the people lived above ground, but when enemies threatened, the inhabitants could go underground for up to six months, even bringing along livestock.

The cities were fortified. The residents could roll these massive stones to block the doorways and fight enemies through the hole that you can see in the center of the stone. There were also holes in the ceilings to pour hot oil on invaders.

Once underground, the inhabitants got fresh air through these ventilation shafts.

Caving is my passion, so I felt right at home hemmed in on all sides by the rock walls.

Today, a few people still live in the rock structures in Göreme, but many have left because of problems with deterioration. In recent years, hotel proprietors have stepped in and renovated the structures to give travelers like me a chance to sleep in a man-made cave for a night.

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As I write this post, I'm back in Kayseri. Aziz and Dicle and their other roommates are such wonderful people that I wanted to spend one last evening with them.

Tomorrow, I hope to begin heading north toward the Black Sea. Aziz suggested the route, and as with all of my prior destinations, I go where the universe tells me.

Before I close, I wanted to share something that Dicle mentioned while she was showing me around Kayseri. I asked her if it was obvious by my appearance that I was not Turkish.

She said "yes" that there were certain features that made me stand out, but she said the real thing that was different about me was that I am always smiling. "People aren't used to seeing that," she said.

Part of the reason I've been smiling a lot lately is that I am so happy to be in Turkey, but also I have been trying to heed the advice of what my friend Umit from Izmir told me.

She said the more positive energy we give off the more positive energy we attract. It's made me wonder what other good things we can all attract in our own lives by paying a little more attention to the messages and vibes were are sending others.