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photos by the Peter Kernett
This
view shows the small Melendiz River and the trail which runs the length of
the valley. The thermal river brings a longer growing season then the
region normally allows, and the volcanic earth is very fertile. Several
villages subsist almost entirely on food grown here. 
Cappadoccian
children are inquisitive towards strangers. This young girl agreed to be
photographed, but insisted her young brother was included. The only piece
of clothing that was machine made were her plastic shoes. The boy wasn't
wearing any.
This is the
view that awaits you as you approach the valley. This is Selime
(Say-leem-ay). While the hiking here looks quick and easy, it soon becomes
more challenging as you must ford the river at several points, and the
canyon walls become much more vertical.
As you move deeper into the
valley, you will begin to find hundreds of caves, dwellings and tunnels.
You must bring lights, rope and climbing gear if you wish to safely
explore hard-to-reach dwellings. Some vertical shafts are 150 feet down
with shear smooth walls. Others are difficult to get into because
earthquakes have destroyed the ground level entrance ways. You can spend
over an hour just getting into one dwelling, and many more exploring it!
This view
displays the sheer walls that make a rock climbers day. The best part is
that probably no one has climbed the spot you will choose. Now add
the excitement of exploring undiscovered tombs and ancient dwellings, and
you have an adventure you can't buy in stores!
This shaft
drops to over 125 feet. What's at the bottom? Nothing. But there were
three other tunnels leading to this deep shaft at various levels under me.
This was probably a well used within this underground city. The shaft
probably descended down to the river level (200 feet) and supplied water
to several levels of this multi-storied dwelling. I wonder what objects
lie burred in the bottom, under 2 centuries of sediment. Who knows what
was tossed down the well by wishful adults or playful children. The other
side-tunnels led to hundreds of other rooms and tunnels. It took us 6 days
just to explore this area!
Windows cast
light into this 300 foot high dwelling. My backpack lies in the shadow and
my partner chews on beef jerky; a short rest before we began to explore
this dwelling. Long after sunset, we climbed back up into this
"apartment" and lined the walls with candles. The flames cast
wonderful shadows that danced with the wind. Ancient burn marks on the
walls made us realize how the 8h century occupants must have felt watching
similar shadows. Notice the chisel marks on the soft walls. Miles of
tunnels were made with the same tools. In the morning we will begin
exploring a nearly silted tunnel leading into the canyon cliffs. We sit
around at night and openly wonder what we might find!
Pay dirt! We
discover two wonderful churches carved into the rock. One look at the dirt
on our clothes reveal the amount of crawling to get here! The red cross
painted near the ceiling was probably painted in the 6th century, while
the elaborate frescoes were added in the 7-8th. The defacing seen on the
paintings were not the work of vandals but of 8-9th century Orthodox
Christians during the Iconoclastic period. Over 100 years of defacing
swept over the entire Byzantine Empire, and down into Ihlara. The fact
that these paintings remain in this perfectly preserved state demonstrate
two things. The Christians probably fled the area soon after these
paintings where defaced, never to return (or at least they didn't repaint
the frescoes when the Iconoclastic period ended), and they prove that
modern people have not yet discovered these deep rooms, for no graffiti,
trash or other vandalism was found. Remarkable.
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