The clay that the Kızılırmak (Red River) deposits in Avanos has been used to make pottery since Hittite times. It’s a tradition that is still alive and well today, as the whole town is dotted with pottery workshops.
In Hittite and Phrygian records, Avanos crops up as an enchanting, fairy-tale-like place created by the god of volcanoes. Standing at the junction of many trade routes, it was called Vanessa in Roman times. During the Seljuk period its names was changed to commander Evranos Bey; later this was corrupted to Avanos. The 1st-century geographer Strabo tells us that Venassa was the third most important town in the Kingdom of Cappadocia, after Kayseri and Kemerhisar, a now all-but-forgotten settlement near Niğde.
The clay that gives the Kızılırmak its color is the basis for pottery-making, a handcraft for which Avanos is particularly famous. Passed down from generation to generation, from father to son, it’s a handicraft that hasn’t changed much since Hittite times. Some of the local potters provide information for tourists and put on demonstrations of pottery-making. Chez Galip (Phone: (0384) 511 42 40) and Güray (Phone: (0384) 411 23 74) are two places, where you can watch mud being given artistic life. The Fırça workshop (Phone: (0384) 511 36 86) is inside a mini underground city where, as you walk through the interconnecting caves, you discover a whole subterranean world of ceramics and tiles.
Another source of income in this little town, as elsewhere in Cappadocia, is viticulture. The local grapes are good not just for eating but also for wine production.
If you have time to spare, do visit the 2nd-century Yamanlı Church, two kilometers from the center of Avanos. The Özkonak underground city near Avanos is also perfect for avoiding the crowds who descend on the Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı underground cities at the height of summer. It is thought that tunnels connected local houses to these underground cities that could accommodate thousands of people for months at a time, whenever enemies were around.
On the way from Avanos to Göreme you can make a side visit to Paşabağı (the former Keşişler Vadisi-Valley of the Monks). It is filled with interesting “peri bacaları” (fairy chimneys), some of them clumped together like asparagus spears. It’s a great place to come in early evening as the sun starts to set. Further down the road, the Zelve Open-Air Museum fills three valleys which were inhabited until the 1950s. Here you can visit the Direkli (Pillar), Balıklı (Fish), Üzümlü (Grape) and Geyikli (Deer) churches, as well as a small rock-cut mosque.
A little closer to Göreme, you pass through Çavuşin, where the 10th-century Church of St John (AKA the Great Pigeon House) is right by the main road, with some of its beautiful frescoes exposed to the air. Inland, in Old Çavuşin, the 5th-century Church of St John the Baptist boasts cathedrallike proportions. If you walk yo Kızıl Çukur from Çavuşin, you will find all kinds of forgotten churches scattered among the gardens and vineyards.
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