Visitors are flocking to a Turkish tourist attraction which has been dubbed ‘Love Valley’.
The famous region of Cappadocia has seen an influx of tourists travelling by hot air balloon to check out the phallic-shaped pillars, which have been dubbed by some travellers, the ‘c*ck rocks’.
The huge phallic formations may look like a homage to male fertility, but they have been naturally formed by erosion of the volcanic rock.
The phallic-shaped pillars in Turkey have been dubbed by some travellers the ‘c*ck rocks’
Rock formations in the Goreme Valley, Cappadocia, are increasingly popular with tourists
The number of tourists visiting the Cappadocia region reached a record 1 million last year, according to tourist officials, who have been monitoring the increasing interest in this area of eastern Anatolia, central Turkey, over recent years.
Although the rocks may make people smirk, they are simply the result of ancient volcanic eruptions, approximately 9 to 3 million years ago during the late Miocene to Pliocene epochs, which covered the region with thick ash that solidified into soft rock many metres thick.
Erosion from the wind and water left only its harder elements behind, forming an unusual landscape of cones, pillars, pinnacles, mushrooms, and ‘fairy tale chimneys’, some of which are up to 130 feet (40 metres) high.
While the structures might make people smirk, they are not manmade but formed by the erosion of volcanic rock
Visitors are travelling to the area by hot air balloon to check out the unusual shaped rock formations
Every morning before sunrise, hundreds of hot air balloons rise into the air above Cappadocia, each holding around a dozen passengers for dawn-time hot air balloon travel, floating above and around the beautiful rock formations that has also jokingly been referred to as ‘willy valley’ by one travel blogger.
Cappadocia is now considered one of the world’s most popular destinations for hot air ballooning, and photographer Karsten Wrobel captured several images of the stunning rocks while on holiday in the area with her partner.
The 43-year-old from Munich in Germany said: ‘We repeatedly visited Love Valley, hiking on our own and with the extremely hospitable owner of the lodge where we stayed.
‘We timed those visits with the early and late times of the day to capture the pillars bathed in golden light.
These images of the pillars were captured by German photographer Karsten Wrobel, who recently visited
Situated in the very heart of modern day Turkey the natural wonder sits on a high plateau
Tourists travel miles by hot air balloon to check out the extraordinary phallic pillars of the Love Valley
‘One morning we took a balloon ride at dawn. Despite this being the middle of winter, there must have been more than 50 balloons in the air.
‘We stayed in the air for about one hour, as the long shadows became gradually shorter and the day brighter before landing in a field and having a glass of Turkish sparkling wine.
‘My favourite shots are of my partner hiking in the shadows of the sunlit Love Valley pillars for they show the sheer unbelievable size of these rock formations.’
Beneath the rocky wonderland, the tourist atractions continue with a honeycomb of human-created caves with living quarters, places of worship, stables, and storehouses, dug into the soft stone by the people of the region.
Entire towns have been formed with as many as eight different storeys underground.
Cappadocia, or ‘Kapadokya’ in Turkish, translates as ‘land of the beautiful horses’ and tourists often catch a glimpse of long-maned horses galloping through the formations.
