Underground City and Monastery castle

Day 2 in Cappadocia. We went on a guided tour, which was great! I learned a lot about the history of the region and we walked far less than Day 1, where too much hiking and too much eager exploration (usually running up hill) exhausted a few of my fellow Yalies.

The Evil Eye- here we have a tree with many evil eyes hanging from it, but it is also very common on bracelets, necklaces, key chains, etc. The Evil Eye is suppose to fend off the bad spirits who try to bewitch us.


Derinkuyu Underground City: the deepest underground city in the Cappadocia region. Currently, 11 floors have been excavated, but more have yet to be explored! The Derinkuyu Underground City can hold between 20,000-50,000 and is one of 40 or so many underground cities in the region. Tunnels of a few km have been found to link the underground cities, suggesting that they were one vast network.


While the Phrygians are credited with creating the first and second stories in 7th BC or so, the cities were later expanded by the Christians who settled the area in 5th-10th century AD. The cities were places of refuge for the early Christians escaping persecution. Not only are they complete with kitchens, wineries, churches, etc, but there complexity also make them quite impossible to invade. Here is an example of the missionary school


Kind of similar to our hostel room at Bedrock Cave Hotel


Selime Monastary: what hardcore monks! They occupied this entire slab of rock, from bottom to the very tip top, where you can see the tiny windows.


After climbing half way up the Monastary


Tunneling to get up top


Church




Ilhara Valley- hiking in between two cliffs full of churches and pigeon houses along a meandering creek. There was a tea house in the middle!