Biram was waiting for us and greeted us and then proceeded to explain all we were planning to see for the day. He appears to be much more personable and knowledgeable than Sirkhand. I am glad he will be our guide today and tomorrow.
Our first stop was the Ihlara Valley gorge near Mount Hasan and Mount Melendiz (two of the three volcanoes of Cappadocia). It is a canyon with a depth of approximately 100m and was formed by the Melendiz River thousands of years ago. It begins at Ihlara village and ends with Selime Monastery at Selime village after making 26 bends along 14 kilometers.
It is believed that the valley housed more than four thousand dwellings and a hundred cave churches decorated with frescoes. Around eighty thousand people once lived in Ihlara Valley.
It is very pleasant to walk through the Ihlara valley by the vineyards, poplars and pistachio trees to the soothing sound of the rushing water (Melendiz River).
There are many cave churches in Ihlara Valley. We turned right at the bottom of the stairs from the main entrance, and were about 10m from the Church of Daniel or the Church of Pantassa church. This church is quite different from the other churches of the Byzantine world of the 10th and 11th century in Cappadocia.
We then proceeded to walk along the gorge and pretty soon came to the exit of the gorge.
At Biram's suggestion we decided to have lunch at the restaurant Balisirma that was located there. It was right on the water and food was reasonably good, a pleasant experience.
Next stop was one of the Underground Cities, apparently there are 60+ of these cities. These were built for temporary hideouts and not for long term living. It is really amazing to see all the work that was involved to make the place habitable and safe. I have never seen anything like this before.
That was all the site-seeing for the day and of course a very enjoyable one. The Cappadocia region has slightly cooler temperatures and is much dryer, making walking pleasant.
It took us about an hour to get back to Nostalji. We asked for dinner suggestions and were told that Selen down in the village was a good place and it was a short drive by cab.
They got us a cab and the driver said he would pick us up if we gave him a time and could pay him then.
It was open air dining as is the norm, my entreé and appetizers were good. They brought us some bread and olive oil with variety ground nuts and spices, very tasty. I ordered a local wine which was very good as well. Unfortunately Sudip's rack of lamb wasn't that good and was kind of tough.
Sudip ordered the Baklava for dessert and since it had walnuts, the waiter also brought a type of candied apricot for me. All in all not a bad experience.
The cab came to pick us up at the specified time and we returned back to our "cave" for the night.
Location:Gôreme
No comments:
Post a Comment