But Cappadocia (Kapadokya) - Turkey's central region - is not all innocence and sunshine. It's not, as George McClintock sang, truly the land "where the handouts grow on bushes ... and little streams of alcohol come trickling down the rocks ... Where they hung the jerk that invented work in the Big Rock Candy Mountains."

Maurauding hordes have swept across the steppes there (prompting early inhabitants to scratch secret cities into the earth). Invaders rerouted rivers and sold natives into slavery. Christians cowered among the caves, safeguarding saints' portraits and championing chastity. And now Cappadocians have seen their incomes evaporate, as tourists shy away from Middle Eastern tensions.

But independent travellers are bucking the trend, rediscovering the warm welcome, handy infrastructure and cheap luxury of this ravishing region, where a $10-a-day budget remains feasible ($20-30 should your taste run to five-course meals, Ottoman architecture by deep, turquoise pools and brisk massages in the local hamam).

The wild landscape might just look familiar. Remember the haunting homes of the Sand People in the first Star Wars film? George Lucas filmed there in central Anatolia, 180m southeast of the capital Ankara.

The epicentre of sci-fi strangeness lies between Urgup, Avanos and Nevsehir. Three mighty volcanoes created these sinuous valleys and hills. The first spread delicate tufa stone, then sculpted by wind and water into ever-evolving domes, hollows, clefts, cones and dreamscape shapes. Later eruptions scattered harder lava. As the soft underbelly erodes, huge boulders teeter upon tufa towers. Many take on an unmistakably phallic appearance, played up by the saucy postcards - and the sniggering backpackers who purchase them.

Such dry geographical facts displease the locals, who prefer mythology as colourful as their homeland. Angels, they insist, perched the stones atop the stalks. Fairies carry off irksome humans, those who fight Fate, and lock them inside the lunar cliffs. (CONTINUED...)