Brand, God put that rock there for a purpose..

Another day of being defeated by breakfast. While trying and failing to join the clean plate club, we made some plans for our morning. One of the major attractions in Cappadocia is the underground cities – there are many of them, some run as tourist destinations, some still serving as storage or stables. Our Rick Steves guidebook had two specific recommendations, and encouraged choosing one or the other.

We ended up picking the underground city at Kaymakli. This massive underground complex was built starting in the 8th century, acting as a refuge for Christian groups up until the 20th century. The city is eight stories deep, and at points in its history housed up to 3000 people.

We arrived at the site and started exploring. There are countless rooms – kitchens, living quarters, storage facilities, a church, and more. There’s a specific route visitors are encouraged to follow, and nearly everyone was part of an organized tour, sticking to that route. But we quickly realized there weren’t any prohibitions on straying from the official path. In fact, there didn’t really seem to be any rules at all. Liability law must act a little different here.

Our first exciting find was a long winding tunnel that emerged into a large open space. From there, a pitch-black tunnel descended out of sight. We followed that one, eventually crawling with our phone flashlights, until we hit a wall.

We continued exploring, following passages that involved climbing, crawling, and plenty of banged heads. For long periods of time, we couldn’t see or hear anyone else. It was incredibly fun.

We were underground for a couple of hours. There were a few tunnels where good sense got the better of us, and we avoided doing Dumb Things. The only disappointment is that there’s basically nothing left of the material culture of the inhabitants – no museum documenting excavation finds, or anything in situ. It’s not clear if that’s because of the continuous use of the city, or for political reasons around telling Christian histories in modern Turkey.

After our tunnel experience, we got some food at a local cafe and planned our afternoon. Since we’d already driven about thirty minutes south, we decided to keep going to visit the Ihlara Valley. Our friend Anneka visited as an 11 year old and remembered it as the most magical place she could imagine. We couldn’t skip it!

The valley is over 15km long, and has more than 50 rock hewn churches, along with residences and store rooms. It’s a beautiful, peaceful setting which is cool and green. The leaves were turning colors, reminding us of fall back home. Apparently on a warm weekend, it can be packed with people cooling off in the river or lounging at the tea house.

We followed the river through the valley. Although some of the churches are marked and have walkways leading up to them, many other sites are unmarked. Instead, you just look for a path through the grass and scramble your way up. Once again, there were plenty of opportunities to make good choices – climbing up to a second floor because of a collapsed roof seemed fine. Climbing post holes to a third-floor window did not.

Once again, we were left wanting for historical details – it’s hard to get a sense of what the valley was like 1000 years ago. But we do know that it’s a pretty great place for an adventure today.

We wrapped our day with a meal in the town of Ihlara, before tackling the 1.5 hour drive back to Urgup. We’ve got another unplanned day tomorrow, so we’ll see where our whims take us. And we’ll try to beat breakfast again.