Pigeon Power

You've seen them in every big city: annoying pigeons and their poop. However, in the amazing Turkish town of Goreme, pigeon droppings are valuable. They have been providing much needed fertilizer in local vegetable gardens for centuries, so the birds are invited to live in the "fairy chimney" rock formations, which also draw tourists from all over the world.

The rock formations also provided refuge for early Christians as they hid from Roman persecution. Not much is left of their rock churches and frescoes in a country that is said to be nearly 100% Muslim. UNESCO has taken over, but it seems that much of the restoration is being done by local people looking to turn cave homes into boutique hotels. More on that later.

The ancient Christian landmarks draw foreign tourists, but not so many Turks. An army of archelologists and art restoriation experts could find plenty of work here, but at the moment the local guides do the best they can to interpret what little is known. The occasional sign tells you that certain rooms might have been a kitchen or a church, but little history other than the broad outlines of what happened here.

Priceless frescoes are fading away in the imposing Seline Cathedral. Nearby are underground cities built by early Christians, where visitors can crawl through a maze of rooms and tunnels eight stories deep... and less than 10% of the actual underground complex where up to 1,000 people could hide from their enemies for months at a time.
The land of the fairy chimneys is an enchanting landscape, but it needs to do a better job of telling the stories inside the rocks. The best story I've heard so far is that when the locals heard the city of Paris was spending $3 million to get rid of its pigeons, their reaction was, "Please send them here!"