November 18th 2013
Turkey – the Geography. Trip of a lifetime 3 of 8
With the exception of the coasts, the Turkey is high plateau. It reminded me of the Calgary area foothills and Peace River country. 
This was sugar beet harvesting time, so we saw truck loads of sugar beets.You travel through acres of farm land, growing an immense variety of crops. E.g. Turkey is a major olive and olive oil exporter.
When you come into the cities ( which are quite large – Istanbul has 18m people) there is lots of industrialization including major car and truck plants (Ford, Mercedes etc.). With a good amount of geothermal activity there are thermal heating and power plants. Here and there you see windmill farms. With no oil of their own, Turks pays over $2 per liter for gasoline .
In the area called Cappadocia, there were centuries of volcanic eruption which lay down hundreds of feet of pumice and ash. This was covered with lava flows. Over time wind and rain eroded the area, forming what we would call hoodoos and they call fairy chimneys.
Since this was on an invasion/raiders route, locals dug their homes into the soft ground horizontally and vertically. We visited an underground city that goes down 9 stories and could house thousands of people. The walkways are narrow and low ceiling ed with trap doors worthy of an Indiana Jones movie.
You can take a sunrise balloon ride like we did to float over the amazing terrain. 
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