ON THE BUS
— The bus to GÖREME pronounced “GORE-em-ay” —Bismillahirrahmanirrohin — The long word is a blessing, and so is the driver’s teddy bear.
GÖREME FIRST LOOK
— The view from Sedef Restaurant — Mr Memet / Mr Hamdi / Mr Halil / Ramazan Sedef—— bought me tea and liked the sketchbook.
TO THE OPEN AIR MUSEUM
— Echoing hum of flies in the stillness. “Snek”= Fly — Faint red 8thCentury frescoes under 11thCentury frescoes in an ancient ave that, before the Christins, was a Pagan temple. OPEN AIR MUSEUM – A Monastery — For several centuries there was a large & thriving monastery here, all in cave chambers. Generations of monks ate, slept, taught, learned, & prayed here. All is preserved & open to the public.
ST GEORGE & HORSE
…with matching halos <— Entrance to St Basil’s Chapel —— This stuff was mostly painted by torchlight, and whatever daylinght filtered in from windows and doorways. On lumpy tufa stone ridged by carving. This St George is not the dragon-slayer, but a St George all their own.
THE APPLE CHURCH
— 13 October ’99 — Entrance — GÖREME — Carved out of living rock, this solid little sanctuary was a church long before Christianity. Built like a closed Greek cross, its pillars are decorative rather than supportive. 8thCentury frescoes show in the crumbled places of those from the 11thCentury. A little painted chunk of Heaven. / All one piece!!
ST BARBARA’S CHAPEL
— This page is gritty with dust blown in the door. — GÖREME — Cochineal whose blood made all this red paint* *Or Devil, depending on which guide you hear. Myself, I think it’s a cochineal bug—— This drawing took five hours & won the respect of the guys on the next page.
TEA IN A CAVE
— Osman / Cengiz / Ali Osman / Bekir — I had been drawing St Barbara’s Chapel; for 4 hours when Osman invited me to tea with these nice guys: Göreme Open Air Museum guides & guards. — Chimpanzee pointed out to me by Cengiz — Chronic itching of the hands made Osman’s life miserable until a healer cured them with these designs in purple ink—— They told me that they sit there and see all sorts of beings in the rocks. In 2006 I went back. Bekir & Cengiz were still there. I was able to delight them by showing them their pictures on the Internet, in an earlier incarnation of this website.
THE PINK BEL-AIR
—Bülent — Wednesday 13 October ’99 — Got my hair cut here with Mustafa — PINK BEL-AIR Someone’s pride & joy — Downtown Ürgüp —
ANDREAS from Cyprus— 14 October 1999 / On top of the world/ He just HAS to go all the way to the top of the mountain. — Formerly of Wiesbaden. Spent a splendid day with him climbing to the tops of everything… mountains, conversation.