Henry Griggs Rambling Home Home Photo Gallery Recent Topics Visit to Australia 2002 Sydney house 2002 Circular Quay 2004 Circular Quay 2002 Centrepoint Tower 2004 Oz Birds 2004 Oz Birds 2002 Bridge Climb 2002 Popular Topics Gallbladder removal Photo of the day HP Calculators Linux/Slackware notes Ripping/burning CDROMs Geek Alaska 2003 UK in 2003 Geek Caribbean 2002 Main Topics Anne Anne's Crafts Blog Cats Collecting Commentary Credits Events Films Links Linux Michelle Miscellaneous Me Photo Galleries Photo Of The Day Rachael Site Index Travel Us Want List Work Navigation Site Map Contact Email Me Search Advanced search Related Sites Hampton Road Events Henry's Notes Anne's Site Hampton Roads Aussies Juniper Rowing Club Great Dismal Regatta Virginia Beach Belles Virginia Beach Rowing Club Williamsburg Boat Club

Day 9: Derinkyu, Ihlara Valley Today we only had two places to visit. In the morning we were going to Derinkyu, the underground city. Then we were going to walk through the Ihlara Valley and have a picnic lunch. Lots of walking ahead of us, so we had another grand breakfast at the hotel. As we were getting on our bus, the hotel had our picnic lunches ready for us. There was a large parcel of food for each pair of us. Derinkyu My map of Cappadocia shows about 23 underground cities, but the book I bought about the underground cities claims that there are about 200 known settlements of varying sizes. One of them was able to house 30,000 people, plus their animals. There must have been something strange about this region for so many people to live in caves in the cliffs or to live in caves underground. Derinkyu is one of the best known of the underground cities and it's been fairly safely opened up to tourism. Electric light, ladders, all the modern conveniences. We had a short bus trip from Urgup, and then we got out at this very boring stop. A few tourist shops, some shops selling bottled water, and the same dusty, brown surroundings. Nothing that looked like an underground city. I don't know what I was thinking about, because an underground city is underground and there isn't a lot that shows above ground. The entrance was pretty simple, and we started climbing down. A simple tunnel, bare rock walls, a few electric lights as we went, and the power cable running along the wall. After a short time climbing down, Frank stopped, said he wasn't going to be able to do this, and then went back upside. I don't blame him. It was a bit claustrophobic and if you had any tendencies towards claustrophobia then an underground city was going to set you off in a big way. The rest of us kept walking downhill. And we walked and walked and then we climbed down ladders and steps and walked down some more. Our first stop was about 40 meters down, when we reached the stables on floor 1. There was a lot of room to move around. Every now and then, I would pause and wonder what would happen to us if there was an earthquake while we were down below. This is the stables on floor 1, the first open area we came to. As you can see, there's plenty of room to move around and plenty of head room. I held back until everyone moved off because I wanted a shot of the area that wasn't obscured by bodies. This shows some of the tandoori ovens on the second floor. They have grills over them now for safety. We wandered around, went down some more levels, and saw some really interesting things. Defense was clearly on their minds. Most of the long passageways that led from one floor to another were set up so they could quickly be blocked. You could quickly slide large solid rock wheels, millstones, into place and lock them down, completely blocking the passageway. Derinkyu means deep well. In older times, it was called Melogobia. The first level we went down to was 40 meters below the ground. Only 8 floors have been opened to the public, but there are more. The full size of the city is not known as it hasn't been completely explored yet. On the first floor are the stables, the winery, the school and study rooms. There are living areas on the way down to the second level. On the second level are the kitchens and storage areas. They used tandoori style ovens. The fourth floor had living quarters and storage rooms. Further down, the seventh floor has a church with a cruciform plan. On the 8th floor, there is a well. This is about 85 meters below the ground. I haven't been able to determine much about the history of these cities. The volcanic rock in this area, tufa, is soft and easily carved. It hardens when exposed to air. This makes cave carving a relatively easy matter. Some research indicates that the underground cities started in the 7th to 8th centuries BC, but the cities seem to have been most used in the Byzantine era, when war and invasion were common. We had a good look round, walked through most of the levels, and were impressed. We climbed back up to the outside, and the sunshine was very bright. To recover, we went through the little tourist shops and bought water and books and postcards. Then we climbed aboard the bus and drove to the Ihlara Valley. Ihlara Valley On the way to Ihlara Valley, we stopped at the top of the gorge and looked down into the valley. It looked very pretty, even though we knew we would be walking that way shortly. The gorge is about 16 kilometers long, and the walk is supposed to be about 6 kilometers. When we came to get back onto the bus after our brief stop, some of us were besieged by the local kids. They wanted coins. Anne gave them some Turkish coins and they scampered on to Barbara. She gave them some Australian coins, and they took reluctantly and were quite unhappy about it. But they still took them. We continued along and stopped again at a small town with houses made of stones. The rooves of the houses were flat, and on some of them, there were women stomping grapes. I didn't manage to get a photo of the grape stomping, but I did manage to get a photo of an old woman sitting on the rock wall beside the road. She was resting, and was so photogenic I had to get a photo. The Ihlara Valley is a long gorge cut into the land by the Melendiz Suyu stream. The valley was a favourite retreat of Byzantine monks. There are dozens of painted churches carved from the rock or built from local stone. At the start of the valley, there is a large and fairly modern tourist facility. This was just what we had been waiting for. We clambered off the bus, collected our picnic lunches, and then lined up at the toilets. There was a big line-up, as lots of other tourist buses had arrived and everyone was trying to get relieved before the big climb and the big walk. It was a long wait till we were all ready. After the refreshing pause, we started to climb down into the valley. It's a long climb down into the valley, and we made a few stops along the way to look at some of the chucrhes carved into the walls of the gorge. We reached the bottom, and then walked beside the stream, again taking time out to check the little churches. We clambered over rocks, and climbed up to the churches and looked at the ruins, then clambered down the rocks again. After the first few, we chose to ignore the churches. After a while, the rocky climbing and clambering ended, and we reached a smooth walking track. It was supposed to be a 6 kilometer walk, but it certainly felt a lot shorter than that. It became very picturesque. At one part, we went past a a shepherd and his grandson. The shepherd was kneeling and praying, while the boy tended the sheep. We were all straggled out. Some of us had walked briskly ahead, others had walked slowly, and a few others kept stopping to look at the little churches. Jenny kept going till she found a nice smooth spot beside the stream about two thirds of the way through the valley that looked inviting and vacant and decided we would lunch there. There were quite a few other tourist parties taking the walk, and some groups had claimed some of the picnic spots. There were quite a few German tourists on the path. We sprawled out and waited till everyone had caught up, then we had lunch. We opened those picnic lunches that the hotel provided. Wow. So much food. We each got fruit and two large sandwich wraps, and drink. I managed to get through most of my lunch, but a lot of our group only ate a little bit. The leftover food did not go to waste. A group of small children had appeared with a donkey and its foal. They stayed and chatted, and we played with the donkey and foal. Most of the leftovers was given to the kids, and they ate some but kept hiding all the rest under the blankets on the donkey, presumably to take home. After lunch, we lay there beside the stream and lazed for a little while. Sebnem went for a small donkey ride. The foal stood placidly in the stream, looking cute and very stupid. All good things come to an end, so we packed up and started walking again. It was only a very short walk to the end of the valley and there was our bus waiting for us. We drove back to the hotel. A quick wash, and then we had our final dinner in the buffet of the hotel, and a good dinner it was. After dinner, I did more bloody washing, then settled in for a good rest. Not all of us had a pleasant night. Richard had been suffering from the runs and dehydration. He had mentioned it to us, and we had given him some Lomitol and Immodium, but they hadn't worked and he was getting in bad shape. He didn't say much to the rest of us, but he spoke to Sebnem and she organised a doctor. The doctor came to the hotel, checked Richard out, and prescribed something to fix the problem. That cost $50 US, but he was able to be reimbursed later through his travel insurance. Sebnem also organised a taxi to come and get the prescription, go to a chemist and get the prescription filled, and then bring it back to the hotel. It worked and Richard started to feel a bit better and could start to enjoy the tour again.