After the magnificent hot air balloon experience, we loaded into another van for the Cappadocia Green Tour from Goreme. This tour takes guests a bit further away from the town and to some unique places less populated by fairy chimneys.
Pigeon Valley
Our first stop was on the other side of Uchisar Castle giving a spectacular vista through Pigeon Valley toward Goreme. Covering the cliff sides and rock formations are thousands of pigeon holes. That is, there are many niches carved out of the rock creating a nesting area for pigeons. Why pigeons, you ask. For their poop.
The desert region of Cappadocia has a limited acreage for farming. Instead of raising livestock to provide fertilizer for vineyards and crops, the people found a sustainable local resource—pigeon poop. Not only does it make a great manure, but pigeon feces also helped in making the frescoes found in many of the cave churches.
Today, pigeons still swarm the area. And, at the overlooks to Pigeon Valley, you can see their ancient homes with a backdrop of ancient people homes.
Derinkuyu Underground City
Other parts of Cappadocia are flat plains, remnants of ancient volcanic fields. Scattered throughout this region are many invisible cities. No one really knows the complete origin or history of them, but they are pretty fascinating. The cities are invisible because they lie underground. They are like warrens with tunnels winding and dropping and twisting, all leading to various rooms and spaces.
Our tour included a visit to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Derinkuyu Underground City, the deepest of them all. The only signs from the surface that a city creeps beneath are inconspicuous air vents and the modern signs telling you about it.
We descended down the narrow tunnels to find rooms with shelves carved in the walls and pits, most likely to hold large pottery, in the floors. At points the tunnel is pretty small causing most guests to double over. Eventually, we came to a level with large rooms including a cruciform church.
The city is a total of 60 meters deep. There are tunnels from miles around leading to the city. It was mainly used, as far as historians know, as a refuge. The Christian features were added when the Byzantines hid from the Arabs and then the Mongols, and then when the Greeks hid from the Ottomans.
Ihlara Valley
Down a deep, forested gorge is another trove of cave dwellings and fantastic history. We had lunch near the river that runs through the gorge then went for a short hike to the Church of St. George, which is high up on the cliff. After ascending the modern staircase, the views of the gorge are pretty magnificent.
There are a few cave chambers carved into the cliff side there. Most of them at this particular location are tombs with little burial slots carved into the stone floors. At the end of this grouping is a small, but spectacularly decorated chapel.
The walls and ceiling are covered in colorful frescoes. They depict St. George among other ancient Christian figures. Unfortunately, they have all been defaced, literally, and lots of graffiti and tagging has ruined the ancient art.
Selime Cathedral
Our final stop on the Green Route was the Selime Cathedral. This collection of caves carved into a cliff face and surrounding fairy chimneys, includes a magnificent cathedral and monastery. Being on the Silk Road, the site was also used by caravans as a resting place seeing as there was already shelter.
When we arrived, I was expecting smallish chapels like many of the others we had seen. I was surprised to find large halls with architectural details carved into the walls and ceilings. The monastery space has two floors with arched windows opening to the central space from the second-floor galleries. A tunnel then connects the monastery to a simple barrel vaulted chapel.
Just next to this is a much larger worship space called the cathedral. It is a vast stone room with ornately (for ancient cave churches) carved details. Arcades flank the sides of the room and a step up at the end leads to the apse with a traditional half-domed ceiling. Fading away on, high out of reach, in both chapels are frescoes. Those in the cathedral as especially lovely.
Since the caves were used as caravan camps, much of the art has been damaged and the floors are now pocked with pot holes used for fires. I could imagine a group of traders sitting around campfires in the cathedral sharing tales of their long journey from Xi’an through Middle Asia and on to present-day Turkey.
Many other spaces make up the site. There are kitchens, dining areas, lodgings, and more. In the winery, there is a deep depression used for wine with a space above it for pressing the grapes and draining the juice into the vat. This space also has some lovely rock carvings on the wall.
