March 29th: Tunnels and hills near Goreme

Another amazing, exhausting, wonderful day.  I have a “ski sunburn”, but I don’t remember skiing!  We went to the amazing underground city of Kaymakle, had an entire museum to ourselves in Nevşehir, went for a hike in the midst of amazing rock formations, had coffee in a Turkish pastry shop in Űrgüp, had another museum all to ourselves, met some charming people, and saw a caravanserai from the Silk Road in Mustafa pasa.  We drove back to Kayseri, and are ready for our flights to Ankara tomorrow morning.

We got up this morning and went down for a typical hotel breakfast of hard boiled eggs, olives, tomatoes, cheese, and raw veggies.  I really enjoy the treat of cereal topped with thick creamy yoghurt, and a tiny bit of flavoured honey – this morning it was apricot honey.  The snow that fell yesterday melted the moment the sun touched it, even on the mountains around us.  It warmed rapidly from -7 to 0 as we got ready to head out for the day.  Today we actually got out the long underwear and gloves, and were very glad we did!  There are real extremes of temperature here right now, -7 to +13.

The table on the deck in the corner of our balcony.

Our first stop was one of the underground cities in the area.  Ian and I had a friendly discussion of what to call a hole that is four feet wide and goes three-quarters of the way across the road.  He thinks “pot-trench” and I think “trench-hole”.  We can both defend our positions, if you care to weigh in.  The roads in this area have had a rough winter.

We chose to go to Kaymakli.  They believe there are about 35 underground cities in the valley, although only only 6 have been excavated.  Kaymalki was first dug out by the Hittites when a time of plague and famine left them weak and vulnerable to marauding armies.  The ancient name was Enegup. It was reused, modified, and expanded, by other groups, including early Christians when Christianity was outlawed in the Roman world.  I can certainly understand why one wouldn’t want to live in a hole in the ground if there were an alternative.

The storage areas seem to take up about half the living area for each family.

We turned down our first potential guide, as he was asking a lot of money (and I couldn't understand a word he said), but took the second man up on his offer.  Although he still charged 40TL, and spoke French much more fluently than English, it still allowed us to learn a lot more about the amazing site, more than 3000 years old!

Here we are, in the church.  That little tunnel, about 38" high, is what I am about to crawl through.  It wasn't the vertical dimension that scared me!

 The entire complex is built around ventilation shafts that have little hand/foot holds on them.  The tunnels are narrow, steep, and I kept thinking about our friend Allan Wood, who would definitely get stuck.  Both of us got our heads smacked more than once.

The first floor has a stable, and the second floor has a church.  There are no church paintings underground, as there would have been very little light.  The Hittites used torches, and the Romans used oil lamps, but it still must have been a dismally dark place.

Each family had a living area, with an area for a big chamber pot, little hollows for amphorae, big bins for wheat and grain, holes in the ceiling for slinging hammocks for children, and holes for what our guide called “telecommunication”. 

The bins for grain storage would have been covered.  The potholes held amphorae, or storage jars.

Almost every exit is blocked by a “millstone” door which can be brought into a room when not in use. 

There were central areas for cooking.  The fires were kindled out of dried animal dung, and there were chimneys, but these have been blocked up over the years to prevent children and animals from falling in.  The ventilation shafts end in wells that are 100 feet deep and which still hold water.  There are a couple of wine making areas, complete with chimneys to take away the CO2.

We emerged back into the daylight and headed off to Nevşehir, where we planned to see the castle and the museum, if possible.  Our GPS couldn’t find either.  “Gimli”, our GPS, told us we had found the museum, and we walked purposefully up to the local high school.  The police station was across the road, so we thought maybe the museum was just beyond that, but we walked a long way and found nothing.  We decided not to try our luck with the castle, but on the way out of town, we saw a little sign that said “Muze” (museum) and went inside. 

Our own private museum.  in the foreground, Roman terracotta sarcophagi.

First we met 4 delightful boys, about 10 years old, and we had fun practicing our language skills on each other.  They wanted to go into the museum with us, but soon got bored and left us.  Meanwhile, we thought the museum was closed, but a man in a suit unlocked the gates, turned on the lights, and left us to it.  

There was an amazing coin collection, and in this tiny museum, tons of artifacts, all found in the area, some of which were thousands of years old.  There were weapons and ancient pottery.

Roman spear points

On the second floor there was a more cultural exhibit, showing traditional household effects, clothing, pottery, weapons, religious art, and even farm implements.

A hay cart, complete with a fork.  Later, in Urgup, I was an entire family on a wagon not much different from this one, hitched to a tractor, and with the baby strapped into a car seat on top of the rug over the cargo.  I though it would be rude to take a picture.

 We left for Űrgűp, and passed through amazing countryside.  Each little village we came across literally looks like it is spilling out of a hillside.  They older homes were cave houses, but the newer ones are made of stone blocks, just in front.  I remember seeing cave houses on Santorini in Greece, and I guess it makes sense:  they certainly have the same building material!

Coming into Nevşehir

As we passed on the other side of the white bluff near Goreme, the sun peeked through and lit it up!  It looked amazing!

We drove through some amazing scenery, reminiscent of the Badlands in Alberta, and stopped for a hike.  We left the car on the side of the road and off we went.  It was a bit treacherous, as the hills seem to be made of steep soft sand.  The formations were of course amazing, but the vegetation, below the bizarre rocks around them, was just as wonderful.  Ian found a tiny crocus(?) orchid (?) iris (?) blooming away, only inches high, and other grasses and low plants were struggling to bloom.  Amazing, considering that the temperature at night is well below freezing.  Other spiny plants and grasses were bleached corpses, but promised that this valley would bloom again in a few weeks.  The walking was a bit exciting, a bit like walking on a beach when the tide has gone out.  We stayed on trails to minimize any damage, but since it is just the start of tourist season and these are not the main trails, they were sometimes a bit treacherous.  At one point I tried to climb over a landslide and found myself standing still and sliding back down the hill.  It had much the same feeling as an escalator.  I thought we'd walked for 20 minutes or so, but more than an hour had passed when we got back to the car.

Amazing rock formations

Ian's Iris

In Űrgűp, at last we once again went in search of the museum.  I made Ian walk a few blocks to see some Roman ruins, and they were, in fact, Roman ruins, just not the famous ones I was looking for.  We went into a little café and each had a pastry and coffee, while we enjoyed a conversation with a couple from New York.  The pastry looked like an éclair, but had honey infused farina instead of custard cream on the inside.  It wasn’t very sweet, but very delicious.  
 
Refreshed, we finally found an even smaller museum that we again had all to ourselves.  

Ian picking grapes

Our next stop was the town of Mustafa pasa, which was once a stop on the Silk Road.  The town has a caravanserie and amazing architecture, but some of this was badly damaged in an earthquake.  I could still imagine what the place must have been like, filled with camels and horses, men and goods.

The old door to the caravanserie

A ruined mansion.  They are planning to fix it and use it for the municipal hall.

All too soon it was time to head back to Kayseri.  We fly out to Ankara in the morning.  Gas here is very expensive (we put 120TL, or about $90, into the car for the 3/4 tank of gas we used).  I guess that is why you see so many people walking!

Oh, and my dinner was great!  I had manti, which is a crispy pasta-like thing with garlic yoghurt and tomato sauce.  Yummy!  (I am a very food oriented person).