We opted to take a mini-tour on Wednesday in order to see a wide variety of the region surrounding Goreme and it was beyond worth the money. We were gone for 9 hours and saw Selime Monastery, the Ihlara Valley, and the most famous underground city, Derinkuyu. I have now seen just about every variation on "how to use a rock"!
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| Evil eye tree |
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| Whirling dervishes |
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| More eyes |
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| Selime Monastery--up to 300 nuns and monks lived inside this rock! |
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| Chapel Frescoes (damaged by smoke) |
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| One of the many chapels in the monastery |
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| "Star Wars" scenery near the monastery |
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| Ihlara valley, created by an earthquake and river erosion |
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| The valley is full of chapels carved into the rocks by Byzantine monks |
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| Three wise men |
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| Above |
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| Tea garden in the middle of the valley |
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| Apple tea #1 of the day |
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Entrance to the underground city, built by Byzantine Christians to escape
from marauding Persian and Arabic armies--allegedly this city could hold
10,000 people in hiding, sometimes for 2 months at a time |
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| Mill stone door used to seal off stairways to block the enemies |
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| Stairs down to the 8th level |
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| Apple tea #2 of the day |
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| Evening overlooking Pigeon Valley |
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