Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo writes that his first sight of the extraordinary landscapes of Cappadocia reminded him of Barcelona. Travellers from Barcelona who turn off the road to Ürgüp from Nevsehir to see the celebrated rock churches of Göreme and Zelve in Avcilar Valley, find themselves in a landscape, which despite its strange, even surrealistic aspect, still arouses a sense of familiarity.
Goytisolo describes Cappadocia with frequent allusions to the architecture of the city he knows so well. That this convoluted and contorted terrain, with its curvaceous volcanic rock and conical stone pillars that enchant visitors should remind one of Gaudi's Barcelona is no surprise. Both places are equally breathtaking, and just as Cappadocia has been likened by Goytisolo to Barcelona, so one can liken Barcelona to Cappadocia, even though the one is the artifice of human hand and the other of nature. Exploring ideas inspired by the mysterious relationship between art and nature, as Goytisolo does, is entertaining, but to be honest this is a likeness that is more apparent in photographs.