Central Anatolia, Turkey's volcanic heart

South of Turkey's capital Ankara you can find some of the most astonishing landscapes of the planet. Here, in Cappadocia, soft volcanic tuff has been sculpted into fantastic shapes by millennia of erosion: huge pillars and mushrooms, valleys of "folded paper" and tuff cones in which early Christians carved their vibrantly painted churches. A stark contrast is provided by the barren salt flats of Tuz Gülö and the austere capital of the ancient Hittites: Hattusha.