Avanos is a pottery town on the Kızılırmak, the Red River, which is the longest river in Turkey and which cuts across the Cappadocia plateau on its way to the Black Sea. The river takes its name from the colour of the clay it carries, and the clay is why the town exists. For thousands of years potters here have dug the red earth from the banks, shaped it on kick wheels and fired it in kilns, a craft that is said to go back to Hittite times and still shapes the main street today.
You can watch it happen. Workshops open onto the street, where craftsmen sit at low wheels, spinning jugs, plates and the big lidded pots used for cooking, and many will let visitors try. Shelves of ceramics in red, brown and bright glazes crowd the shops, and the quality ranges from tourist souvenirs to serious pieces. The town also has a strange attraction in a pottery shop whose cave walls are covered in locks of hair left by women who visited over the decades, a curiosity that has become famous in its own right.
The river gives the place a different mood from the dry plateau. Willows and poplars grow along its banks, a stone bridge crosses it, and in the evening people sit by the water and drink tea. The road between Göreme and Avanos runs over rolling land with views of pinnacles and cliffs, and it is an easy ride on mostly good asphalt, with some patched sections and farm traffic. In summer the afternoons are hot and bright, so mornings and evenings are better, and in winter the days are cold, with frost and occasional snow.
Avanos is a real town, with nearly thirteen thousand people, shops, bakeries and petrol stations, so it is a handy place to fill the tank, buy water and find lunch. Grilled meat, lentil soup, gözleme, a thin filled flatbread, and Turkish tea fit the setting, and the bakeries sell fresh simit, a sesame-coated bread ring. Parking is easy near the river, and pottery can be shipped if you cannot carry it.
Sit by the water for a while. The river, unlike the rock formations, is a quiet thing, and it has been shaping life here for a very long time.