My family and I visited my friend Maddie and her family in Ankara, Turkey. Her parents, Dan and Lara work at Bilkent Laboratory and International School and Maddie and her brother Forrest are students. They have lived in Turkey for 6 years!






Here are some things we did:

We visited a region called Cappadocia. We stayed in a town called Goreme. Cappadocia is unique to Turkey because many of the houses there are built into the rocks. If you don't understand what I mean, then think of large stone mini-mountains with doors and windows built into them.



Many of these unique houses are abandoned, But people do live in them. It is nice to live in these houses because you really don't need air conditioning because you are in a cave and caves are cool because of the rocks surrounding you.

Another place we visited in Turkey was Derinkuyu, the Underground City. This was built/dug in Turkey as early as 7th century BC! Later in history, Christian refugees used these to keep safe from the invading Hittites and later the Persians. The invaders were trying to attack the Christian people because they didn't believe in the same religion and the same god or gods.




We also visited a Mosque. This is was the first time my family and I had been in a mosque. A mosque is a place of worship for the Muslim religion. It is a place for people to go and pray. There are five calls to prayer each day. This mosque was in Ankara. A mosque we went to in Istanbul was called the Sultanahmet Camii or the Blue Mosque. More on this later...




-Marin-

http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_Underground_City
http://www.goreme.com/goreme-open-air-museum.php

Location:Cappadocia (Kapadokya)