TURKEY TRIP REPORT DAY 8 CAPPADOCIA Ihlara Valley, Selime Monastery

 

NOV 18, 2021, THURSDAY:  

SUMMARY: watched the balloons from our room.then drove to Ihlara valley and hiked. it was lovely.Then  Selime monastery, pretty steep hike. Wound up the day with the pigeon valley outlook

In the morning we were woken up by the BOOM sounds of the hot air balloons being fired up in their launch site, just some 300m down the road from our hotel. We looked through the window and could see a few early ones rising slowly in the air. Very entertaining sight, we could watch from the comfort of our room … freezing temperatures outside.

There was a nice enough view from the bed snuggled inside the quilt.

Re the sight seeing for the day, we followed the choices of the popular tours. The green and Red tours cover the popular highlights of the region. From the Red tour, we had seen Goreme open air museum and Pasabag. From the Green tour, we had been to the Goreme panaroma and Derinkuyu. 

We decided to drive to Ihlara just as a change of scenery.... to enjoy a river and canyon along with rock hewn churches, instead of chasing more fairy chimneys.

The Ihlara Valley

Set between Mount Hasan and Mount Melendiz, the Ihlara Valley is a stunning gorge of some 14 km dug by the Melendiz River in the span of thousands of years.  

 It is a 85 km drive , we were the only car on the road for most of the trip. After hotel breakfast we started on our drive.

There were 2 sets of steps going down to the valley . We took the one to the right [at the end of our hike we climbed up the left one]. There are some 400 plus steps descending down to the valley... with hand rails and easy slopes, it's the easiest way to get down into a 150m deep valley

 volcanic activities and tectonic movements together have created the natural wonders of the valley . When the basalt and andesite lava from Hasandagi cooled down, cracks, subsidence and structural failure gave space to water streams. Among these was the Melendiz creek, ancient Potamus Kapadokus, which has eroded the bottom of the valley creating what we see now. 

The hike is along the gurgling river , enjoying the tall trees flanking the banks. 100-150 m high cliffs tower over the narrow valley and churches and monasteries are hewn in the volcanic rocks.

There are numerous churches with beautiful frescos. This is Sümbüllü (Jacinth) Church, a monastery where we could see both the sacred area and where bishop and monks lived.

Melendiz river and sign boards

Rickety bridge across the river

Ladder up...

ON THE RICKETY BRIDGE

Solid bridge across the river... we crossed over to the IHLARA Sign

IHLARA Sign...

Main signboard under the left stairs... we went up those stairs to the exit

We had hiked for a couple of hours and it had been quite enjoyable. There had been plenty of local families enjoying the weekend, otherwise it may have been eerie.

We drove on to Selime monastery which is at the end of Ihlara valley

SELIME MONASTERY

Selime monastery is the largest religious structure in the Cappadocia region with a cathedral-sized church cut directly into the volcanic tuff. It dates back to 8th/9th century. 

 We reached there and had some food inside the car.... there were aggressive dogs around.

UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE WITH ATTENDANT

When we got out at the car park, we were accosted by the attendant who offered his guide services. We politely refused. This has been customary everywhere. There were no ticket counters or any signs... just some shops and a cafe. We walked toward the right. There were some local women sitting on the rocks. We asked them' Girish? Pointing at the right direction and they nodded.

We went that way. Climbed the structures after a while realized this was not the main monastery. I did not have the energy or the inclination to clamber any hillock and crawl through caves . We saw a local guy on vacation from Germany where he was working . He spoke English and we understood the monastery is on the left. We retraced and were looking for the entrance. 

The parking guy again approached and asked for money for his guide service. When we refused, he told us 'you'll never find the entrance'. The local guy from Germany was just watching on.... not willing to point us in the correct direction. We just went through the narrow path between shops... no, nothing there. We again tok another narrow path and yes, it was leading to the monastery. We started walking. There were shouts from a side... a guy was asking us to buy the tickets. Son went up and showed our pass. Such a strange thing they were not positioned near the car park. Son asked him how far is the monastery, up the structure. The guy said 5 minute walk. Total trolling. The monastery was up steep rocks right up at the top. I would have waited in the car, had I done better research. Anyway they guy probably got a kick out of trolling people asking for info.

I made it up with son's help. To be frank, not worth the steep climb.

We came down. Thankfully the attendant had not done anything to our parked car. We paid the parking fee , dodged the dogs and took off. [I HAD READ IN A HIKING BLOG that local guides purposely break signs and mess up remaining ones in the Goreme valley so that independent hikers will get lost and everybody has to seek guide services. the blog went on to give precise instructions /GPs coordinates for the hike and where arrows were wrong. Anyway, I don't want to point fingers but it was certainly unpleasant for me]

We had missed the Belissma church. We drove up north and went back, instead of retracing our way through Derinkuyu, the way we had come.

PIGEON VALLEY LOOKOUT

We hit up Pigeon valley lookout.  PIGEONS (TURKISH: GÜVERCINLIK)

The valley is named for the many pigeon houses or dovecotes carved into the rocks and cliffs. Years ago the pigeons were used as message carriers, and their droppings were used as fertilizer and maybe even for use in making explosives. Today, very few, if any, pigeons are kept in the valley. The square holes are the pigeon homes.

There was a pre wedding shoot going on. There was hardly any light though.

We had our fight out of Cappadocia the next day afternoon. We were very happy with what we had managed to sample. Before our visit, we had read so much advice on just doing tours and how difficult it's to get a good flavor of the region on your own!

Our report continues