Uchisar

After the underground city, we drove back to Uchisar, to see the castle there, and then on to a ridge overlooking Goreme, where we spent our last night in Cappadocia.

Uchisar Castle, another carved-out elevation, perhaps the

grandest of them all

View of Uchisar from the top

Ditto; smaller, vassals' castles below

Us on the summit

For some reason we never understood, the air flotilla
launched again, late in the afternoon, contrary to their 
stated mission of flying only in the early AM; perhaps 
they were moving to their winter quarters in Sarasota

Tourist/native interaction; universal language

Curious cat

Fixer-upper

The more impressive side of Urchisar Castle, over where

the tour buses park; and the bazaar...

At the aforementioned bazaar, world-class kitsch; does

UNESCO have a category for this?

Another photo pregnant with meaning: a

Japanese tour bus has just rolled in, joining

the dozen others, I am up on a mound hoping

to capture the drama, the excitement, the 

beauty...the balloons are launching in the

valley, the camel is waiting for his next trick,

and Vicki is laughing hysterically at me and

the whole Cappadocian scene

Anyhow, we parked that night with a couple French RVs

on a ridge overlooking Goreme; they were just back from

Syria

And had lunch the next day, exploring Goreme, at a

"traditional" restaurant called A la Turca; the mezes...

And the main, sort of a sliced roast beef (?),

smoked, served on a bed of frites, smothered

in yogurt and brown gravy; I swear I am

not making this up; credit Vicki for not even

thinking of asking for ketchup; so far as I
know

Kaymakli Underground City

In addition to all its other attractions, Cappadocia also has several underground cities--places where the Christian or other communities could literally go underground and live for a time while marauding or crusading armies marched through. We chose Kaymakli, which had eight levels, four of which are now open. It accommodated 3,000. Derinkulu, nearby, could accommodate 10,000, they say.

Rather than being underground, strictly speaking, Kaymakli was built into this 
ridge 

Tourist entrance to Kaymakli

Whatever; it's another World Heritage Site



Looking down one of the corridors

It was reasonably well signed, but we engaged a guide anyway--the guidebooks 
said to--for a mere $15 we got to hear, three times, how the citizens of Kaymakli 
solved their "toilet problems"

For defense, or if the neighbors wouldn't turn down the music, the citizens 
could close off passages by rolling these really heavy stones into place

Vicki in one of the smaller passage-ways; not a place for 
claustrophobes



Flat-screen TV would have been very popular; but then all the satellite dishes would 
have given away the location of the city

In the (common) kitchen area, our guide said, this was the spice rack

All in all, I did not think the underground city was all that 
great; I later amused myself in the adjoining bazaar

Soganli Valley, 2

More from Soganli Valley, Cappadocia...

Seen from across the valley, Kubelli Kilise, or the Domed

Church

Looking up into the dome, all carved from the rock

Domed Church interior

Carved columns, lower level of Domed Church

Monastery interior

Domed Church exterior

Outdoor cooking, Soganli

More cliff dwellings, on the way out

Potato harvest, back-breaking work

Squash in the fields...we saw millions of them

Soganli Valley, 1

After Zelve, we drove back down south again, through Uchisar, then Moustafapasa (where a few Greek families still live and where there is an annual Turkish/Greek friendship event), up and down valleys and canyons, on to the high ridge, and then down to Soganli. We spent the night in the parking lot outside the local tourism office, which looked closed for the season, but came back to life the next morning. Soganli is off the major tour bus route, although we saw a few independents, including two from NYC, and a couple of more adventurous maxitaxi loads, Germans. We pretty much had the valley to ourselves for a couple hours. The ruins there are mostly churches, monasteries and the like, 10th-11th century, but absolutely un-restored. Even as defaced as they are, they are still interesting and sometimes moving.

En route to Soganli, cliff dwellings

Soganli Calley, right fork; the structures are low down

Karabas Church

More Karabas

Ceiling

Detail

Yilanyi Church--Snake Church or St. George Church

"Onward Christian soldiers..."

Ms. Sherouse was last seen entering hall 17
on level IVa

Interior, looking out, Yilanyi Church

There's St. George, on horseback, the

snake/dragon below

St. Fruitus de Loomis

I Could Have Whirled All Night

I could have whirled all night, and still have begged for more. I could have spread my wings, and done a thousand things, I'd never done before...

OK, we're going to leave the dervish thing for next time;
or maybe the time after that...

Zelve

Zelve is another one of the Capadocian centers, actually two: a village at the head of three valleys, which we skipped, and a collection of picturesque mushroom and other figures just below.

Zelve Open Air Museum, from the outside

Ditto



Zelve cat

Zelve mushroom features

Ditto

Vicki demonstrating proper down-climbing

technique, returning from, well, a chapel that

wasn't all that great

Obligatory camel, found at all tour bus-worthy sites,

available for weddings, bar mitzvahs, christenings,
birthdays, circumcisions...

Typical Zelve structure





We were not alone



Three-humped Zelve camel