Backpacker Magazine – March 2009

Wilderness Wonders: Strangest Rock Formation

Millions of years ago, these crazy rock formations were formed in Turkey due to volcanic activity.

by: Marcus Woolf, Photos by Serendipity Travel Turkey

Biggest Cave | Scariest Predator | Driest Desert | Hottest Geysers | Largest Glacier | Highest Peak | Tallest Tree | Highest Biodiversity | Largest Primate | Most Active Volcano | Strangest Rock Formation | Biggest Bear | Largest Crater | Farthest Migrator | Tallest Waterfall

What If a Dr. Seuss landscape came to life, it would look a lot like the fractured and folded moonscape of Turkey's Cappadocia region. Ten million years ago, volcanoes deposited ash, lava, and basalt across the plateau. Over time, eruptions and erosion carved a great valley, and the subsequent effects of wind and water created "fairy chimneys"–some more than 100 feet high. While lower layers of soft, white volcanic material were whittled into trunks, the harder top layer of basalt remained to form delicately balanced, gravity-defying round caps.

 

Where Red Valley/Pigeon Valley, Turkey. Explore the region's highest concentrations of fairy chimneys–plus sunset-colored canyons and dozens of ancient caves that once held homes and even churches–on the network of trails snaking between Çavusin and Ortahisar (Red Valley) and Uçhisar to Göreme (Pigeon Valley). visitcappadocia.com

Subscribe to Backpacker magazine
Sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter