Day 11 - Goreme

Again we've rented a scooter for the day, and this time Osman is sending us on a Southern loop. We breezed through Uchisar and missed the castle there (oops), and on the way to Cardak we're caught in another downpour. To avoid the rain we stop periodically wherever we can find shelter; under the shade of a country high-school, beside a telecommunications building in a field, and in a Turkish tea-house. These tea-houses are special places for men only, but because we are tourists we are welcomed inside and have a tea there. There really are only men in there, mostly old and grizzled, almost all smoking and drinking tea, and some playing backgammon and Turkish bridge. Leah and I were certainly the stars of the place as all the men stare us down, but the patron cheerfully gave us Cay tea for free so all seemed okay.

When the rain finally cleared we rode to Kaymakli and visited the underground city there. This place is huge, like a human sized ant-farm! There are tons of rooms connected with narrow passages, some with huge stone wheels to roll in place for protection from attackers. We had fun exploring without a guide, pretending we were the first to visit these rooms and imagining what each place was for. We know of a few things to look for, fire hearths with a rut carved to remove ash, and blackened walls from smoke surely indicate a place for cooking, rungs cut in the walls to rop animals, long tables for eating, huge storage compartments cut into the walls, and of course recessed (and sometimes protruding) shelving systems. All of this is monolithic, so there are no free pieces in the whole place, except the rolling stone doors.

I explored a few unlit sections, but it was a little unsettling so I had to go back. Maybe with a better flash light I could have explored further, but my headlamp is quite dim. It really made me wonder how people could live there, as the only light they could have had would be from burning flame, maybe an oil lamp; I can only assume you would get used to the darkness after a while.

Next we rode the scooter to Sahinefendi where a Roman bath house is in the process of being excavated. It was discovered 3 years ago and it was really cool to see the process of excavation.

We rode on to Keslik Monastery, again carved out of the volcanic rock. There are sections of stonework, in particular the chapel, but most of the place is carved right into the cone shaped structures left over from an earlier time of volcanic instability. Very faint frescoes remain, and it seems that most have been covered in black paint - it is speculated this was done to protect them although I can't imagine from what. Wandering the area we explore more caves, but as usual they're all empty except for what cannot be taken out, like the the hearths and one huge stone wheel used as a door.

In Mustafapasa we ate a huge pide (Turkish pizza) and admired the Greek architecture there. Once we made it back to Goreme we caught a night bus for Erzurum.