Kayseri

Kayseri sits at the foot of Mount Erciyes, a volcano of nearly three thousand nine hundred metres whose ski resort is half an hour from the centre. The city is old and Seljuk: Kayseri Castle plants its black stone fortress among the streets, and the Seljuk Civilization Museum keeps the carved stonework of that age. Kayseri Bazaar sells pastırma, the spice-cured beef the city is famous for, and the tiny mantı dumplings that made its name. On the old caravan road, the Sultanhanı Caravanserai still holds the largest stone way-station in the country. Above all, Cappadocia begins an hour up the road. That is where the painted rock churches of the Göreme Open-Air Museum are, the cave village hollowed out beneath Uçhisar Castle, and Derinkuyu Underground City, sunk eighty metres into the ground. At first light the balloons go up by the hundred over the pink valleys.