I guess it's unique, the strange rock formations and subterranean dwellings of Cappadocia provide unforgettable sets of experiences, memories and photographs. Any time of the year is beautiful here whether you're hiking the Ilhara valley in the spring sun or exploring a landscape that defies description when the snows of winter come. The towns of Avanos and Nevsehir and the three villages of Goreme, Urgup and Uchisar are all good bases for exploring this region and although a lot of people have come and gone in a weekend this area really repays the investment of a few extra days. Accommodation and food are cheap (as is the locally produced wine) and many people, especially backpackers, enjoy the laid back and friendly atmosphere that prevails. You can walk, cycle, taxi or even bus it around this area and a plethora of agencies will offer you guided tours. Highlights might include the annual wine festival or a balloon trip across the famous fairy chimneys and valleys. The links from this page will tell you a lot more about the region but to sum up what you've got is a landscape produced by long term erosion of volcanic deposits. The landscape is the key to just about everything else about the place. The softness of the material forming the hills and valleys has encouraged people to dig. The security offered by the nature of the dwellings combined with the remoteness of this region made it an obvious place of refuge for those escaping persecution or seeking isolation for its own sake. This aspect of Cappadocia is what draws people interested in the history of Christianity. So, a volcano, some digging, and people looking for somewhere to lay low for a while , all complemented by the work of nature, have made Cappadocia what it is today. Sadly what it is today isn't quite what it was yesterday and, although belated preservation work is being carried out, it seems inevitable that much of the areas charm will be simply washed away.
The history of Cappadocia has to begin with the geological background to the remarkable landscape here. A long, long time ago a series of eruptions from the cones of Mt. Erciyes and Mt Hasan covered the area in a thick layer of volcanic ash which solidified to form the soft tufa that characterises the surface strata here. Both these volcanic mountains are still extant and dominate the landscape. There's some reasonable skiing on Erciyes in the winter. 
The processes of erosion started the work of carving out valleys and gorges and continue to act to this day. The signature of the region, the 'fairy chimney' is formed when a cap of resilient stone protects the column of softer material beneath it while the surrounding tufa is removed. The area is now a warren of caves, underground cities, rock churches and chambers and it's almost certain that there are more such sites waiting to be rediscovered.
Cappadocia makes its first entrance into history courtesy of Heroditus, writing in the 5th Century BC but it is with the advent of Christianity that it becomes of interest to the average contemporary tourist. Christianity came early to the region with St. Paul passing through on his way to Ancyra (Ankara) and 3 Saints originating here in the 4th Century. The remote and sometimes harsh nature of the landscape and climate here appealed to the early anchorites who favoured an ascetic existence in which hardship brought them closer to God. Gradually these individuals formed loose knit communities here to benefit from a social structure but nevertheless retained their individuality. These communities were formalised as a result of St. Basil's pronouncements on the rules of monastic life in the 4th Century and slowly grew over the next few hundred years. The arrival of Arab raiding parties in Anatolia in the 7th and 8th centuries drove the monks underground and they took local Christian communities with them forming the underground cities you can explore today, several of which are staggering in their scale. The Christian communities dwindled after the Turks arrived in Asia Minor and local in
habitants moved into the more convenient of the excavations that were left behind. Cappadocia effectively vanished from the point of view of the West until it was rediscovered by a French Jesuit priest in 1907.
The frescoes that many tourists come to see can be divided up into Pre and Post-Iconoclastic. The earlier works rely entirely on symbolism to communicate their messages and may look childish and simple in comparison to later works. Their form is a result of the early church's disapproval of the portrayal of the human form in religious art. The works which postdate the resolution of the Iconoclastic controversy (mid 9th Century) are much more figurative. It is interesting to compare them and realise that both styles are telling the same stories of Christ and the Saints. It is very difficult to find a section of fresco work that hasn't been damaged, usually maliciously and the root of this lies partly in the abhorrence of representations of the human form felt by strict Muslims at various times over the last half millennia. Another, possibly apocryphal, story tells us that local maidens believed that the blue eyes of the figures in the frescoes, if removed and powdered, could be incorporated to make a powerful love potion. An awful lot of figures have their eyes removed.
