ABSTRACT
This encounter concerns a Göreme family who live just outside the village in a cave-house set, just below the top ledge, into the cliff of a valley that has now become one of Göreme’s main panoramic viewpoints. Bus groups of tourists often stop on this ledge to gaze over the valley, and the guides of some of those groups, in an effort to provide an experience of the ‘authentic’ cave-life of Cappadocia, lead their tourists down the rock-cut steps to visit this cavedwelling family. The family have grown to see these tourist visits as something of an easy money-earner, and keep a pile of souvenir items such as folk dolls, headscarves and lace items ready to sell to their captive audience. I knew this family well, and often visited them in their cave-home to eat and chat with the mother of the family. On one occasion, a group of thirty middle-aged American tourists were led into the house by their guide who was, in this case, a woman from Istanbul.
