Rock fantasy gorge

Aeons ago volcanoes erupted in the heart of Turkey leaving tens of meters of volcanic ash lying over the land.  Over time, this hardened, but stayed soft enough to work.  It was tuff.

Water eroding the tuff

Soft enough, that over time springs bubbled up, then a stream, finding its way down,  grooving and channelling this way and that until it carved out an elaborate gorge for itself deep into the tuff.   rock A rock fantasy gorge.  And some sensational scenery.   

Like an oasis

Travellers, passing through this remote and unusual looking land stopped to take a look at the odd formations and found drinking water.

Cluster of amazing formations

Some of them chose to stay as fish were plentiful in the stream and there were greens in the valley and shelter could be found in naturally formed caves. They left bits of themselves behind: tools and pottery, some finds even from the time of the Hittites — so they might be remembered.  

Havens in the cliffs

But the astonishing remains come from Christians who were running from Romans intent on persecuting them for their beliefs.  They ran until they found this remote valley so secluded and so difficult to access they felt themselves safe.  Here, over time, they built homes and burial places, churches, even cathedrals and monasteries, carving them into the walls of the tuff cliffs that sometimes rise vertically from the valley floor.

Decorated when they had time

 And decorating them. 

Like nowhere else on earth

Today their place is called Ihlara Valley.  The stream, still carving its way deeper into the tuff, is the Melendiz River. This area is considered among the most stunning scenery in all of Cappodocia.  

Meandering beside the Melendiz

Some seven thousand Christians were believed to have lived here at one time.  Which is not hard to believe as in summer easily that many could even now walk through the valley on any one day seeking out the unusual land formations and the Byzantian art they left behind. 

Byzantine art in cave dwellings

Unusual that art is here, as it is more like Syrian work, so is quite exotic.  

Quite exotic

We are spending so much time in and around this valley we are in danger of running out of time overall.  We have to get a move on to cover all that we want.    We started in the Selime area, looking at the monastery and the rock cut villages, then drove down into Belisirma, saving ourselves the many steps down, then walked for hours along the river bank, edged with wild asparagus with its spears so tender it can be eaten raw, wild mint, parsley, and angelica fronds.  

The air is fragrant with wild herbs

The valley floor is a forager’s food larder, there for the picking.

Hard to leave

One old lady, permanently bent double, was growing her own. She lived in the tiniest cave and had the tiniest garden we have ever seen.  As we wandered past we could hear her muttering a litany of deep-voiced imprecations.  Prayers mayhap that her vegetable garden might bear enough to support her for another year?

Chanting as she worked

Above her, many of the rock caves have  notches carved near the entrance.  We hear one Turkish tour guide telling a group that these were carved to mark the number of dead buried in that cave.  But, there are hundreds all over the valley, and sometimes carved inside places that are not burial caves.  Elsewhere, we heard they were cut as pigeon roosts.  Who knows?  Bec thinks they would make good wine racks.

Notches carved into the dwellings

We eat another lunch of fresh grilled fish from the stream — so delicious! — on one of the decorated platforms over the Melendiz. All of which  makes it so hard to move on each day. 

Fresh fish lunch by the river

Then at Güzelyurt we drive to a monastery on the top of one of the mountains that erupted creating the tuff to find Hittite remnants have been found beneath it.

Güzelyurt Monastery 

So they, like us, once looked out over this stunning landscape.   

Through a looking space inside the monastery

The monastery remnants like some of the Byzantine art we have seeing, has been slashed with graffiti.  The savagery of some of the modern-day barbarians who are passing through this valley horrifies us.  Will any of the art be left in twenty more years if this keeps up?  

Modern barbarians scar the monastery with graffiti

Tonight we are parked in the grounds of a pension in Ilhara. The Melendiz is flowing swiftly past our camper.  Ducks, who are not avoiding the rapids, are shepherding their ducklings into one of the cliff caves to roost for the night.

It is all much as it ever was.  

So many once lived here 

oooOOOooo