"Cappadocia's enchanting landscape remains unparalleled in history and mystery. Ten million years ago, eruptions from the volcanic Mt. Erciyes (3916m) and Mt. Hasan (3268m) covered the underlying plateaus with tufa, as soft stone made of lava, ash, and mud. Rain, wind, and flooding from the K?z?l?rmak River shaped the tufa into a striking landscape of cone-shaped monoliths called peribaca (fairy chimneys), grouped in valleys and along gorge ridges. Visitors today are both captivated by the genius of ancient civilizations and inspired by pristine hikes through Cappadocia's bizarre geology, which is sometimes compared to the Grand Canyon on acid." - Let's Go Travel Guide Turkey 2003 "If Fred Flinstone took drugs, he'd probably hallucinate about living in a place like Cappadocia. Its bizarre hills have been the site for some of the most eccentric settlements in human history. Soft, red rock is topped with harder, darker layers, allowing for a process called differential erosion. So what? So...people down the centuries have been able to gouge living spaces from the soft underbelly, while the hard outer shell preserved-and continues to preserve-those same living spaces intact. The Hittites were the first to dig in. Then, from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries, came Christians on the run from marauding Arabs. Speaking of marauding Arabs, these days it's the turn of the hordes of backpackers... except, of course, if you break with convention and come in the winter." -David Cox, "Cappadocia in January"