Our early departure is to provide us an early arrival to the nearby Derinkuyu Underground City and tour this ancient city beneath the earths surface.
When we arrive at Derinkuyu, and only one bus has arrived before and its packed with Koreans, who seem to do quite well in small confined places it seems...maybe thats a glimpse of how it was living in this city of refuge that built 18 stories or 250-ft below the earths surface was like? lol
As I just about take my forehead off a few times and as we make our way down narrow stairs and passage ways to the bottom 8th layer it is a marvel to recognize of how life might have been in this city that dates back before the Hittites to the 8th century BC.
There was most of all the bare essentials in a city that could accommodate up to 20K people, but apparently often had 4 to 5K in hiding from their enemies at the time? They had wine and oil presses, cellars, storage, living rooms, chapels, and the second level had a unique vaulted ceiling that was used as a meeting area and school with study rooms. Near the surface level was stables for their animals which had provisions for water and feed and as you had to pass thru this level to get to the living areas below...must have been a aromatic welcome?
There are reportedly up to 200 underground cities in this region of Turkey and were used for hiding during raids, they were often two to 3 levels deep and were connected by underground tunnels such as the large Derinkuku city. We saw long tunnels or wells dug down from the surface which was used for essential ventilation and often to tell whether it was daytime or night. There were certain water wells that were used by the enemy to poison their drinking water and there were other wells that were protected from that nasty tactic. The city also had heavy millstones about to block off entry entries and passage ways that were about 500kg and 5-ft tall with a large centre peep hole to view who has there and roll it in and away.
Pretty cool visit and as we toured about 4 to other bus tours arrived and its just one way of travel up and down the narrow stairs and thru the various passageways, so lotsa waiting for the groups to come and go so we could do the same...it woulda been a riot to live in Derinkuku...NOT!
We traveled further and our next stop was a lovely village valley walk along the Melendiz River and we experienced our first deluge of rain, I did not come prepared for heavy rain and wasn't about to pay 20 TL for a umbrella that I couldn't pack so I rather waited it out at our very cool lunch stop and took pics while getting onto their free wifi to check hockey scores and the world from CBC. I still can't believe that the LA Kings bumped off the Ducks and could go all the way...Yuck!
I have attached some cool pics of this Asian/Turkish restaurant that is situated next to a river and they have gazebos on the water with the traditional floor seating tables and many others under a big tent next to the water and its serviced by a bunch of aggressive Turks who service you quickly after they show you a picture book for the menu items. Our group rate for one of about 6 lunch items was 20 TL and drinks extra, which is the normal lunchtime cost. I took pics of his large menu pics and then when we got our dishes compared them to the actual...of course there was little comparison as the portion size was about a third smaller. Those of us that ordered the veggie dish were pleased when it arrived in a deep cast dish that was very hot and tasty...however the 3 inch deep dish proved to be only 1 inch deep once you ate the veggies on top...very clever marketing by this place that was run exclusively by men including the kitchen that used a large wood fired oven.
The food was good and the ambience was unique and obviously a popular stopover location in the middle of kinda nowhere, for tour guides making the journey to and from Cappadocia to Konya and vice versa...I am very certain the guides have their own network of stoop-over locations and get a piece of the action from each, as even our young guide was always very welcomed by the owners along with ourselves...why not, its part of the perks?
When we finally pull into the outskirts of Konya...I recognize this is another big town and plenty of varied industry. Konya is located in the central Anatolia region of Turkey and is the 7th largest city with slightly over one million residents. The ancient Biblical name was Iconium and it is reported to be one of the oldest occupied cities in the world dating back to 3M-BC.
This is a very religious conservative city so the Muslim ladies are wearing their Hijab and very long modest clothing...well the men of course anything goes but it requires some level of modesty?
Okay gotta catch the bus as we tour away from the most beautiful Anatalya to to Kas for the night...more on Konya and the very special Old Town of Anatalya with beautiful pics of this seaside town to follow...standby and enjoy your Sunday!
No comments:
Post a Comment