PASABAG

Also known as “Monk Valley” this remote vale is the celebrated site of the majestic fairy chimneys that mark Cappadocia’s topography as utterly unique, and the variation in form and style is simply amazing.  Tradition holds that Saint Simeon, living in seclusion near Aleppo in the fifth century, grew disturbed as rumors of his supposedly miraculous deeds began to spread.  He fled the city and began to live at the top of a natural stone column fifteen meters high; there he spent the remainder of his life, descending only occasionally to retrieve the sustenance brought by his disciples.  Later Simeon monks similarly sought to retreat from the world in the Paşabaǧ Valley, hollowing the fairy chimneys to create isolated, yet majestic, seclusion chambers.

Long before the Simeon monks arrived in the Paşabaǧ, volcanic eruptions created this surreal moonscape.  Lava flows eventually formed tuff rock, which wind and rain subsequently sculpted into sinuous valleys with curvy cliff faces and pointy fairy chimneys.