Turkey 🇹🇷 ~Cappadocia “Selime Cathedral and Derinkuyu Underground City”
On our first full day in Gorme, we took a tour. It was reasonably priced, and it was nice to sit back and let somebody else drive the long miles, instead of us, this one time.
We did misunderstand one point of the tour, before we signed up. We thought the underground city visit would be the one we had NOT seen. We were wrong, but once the guide learned we had already visited the one on the itinerary (Kaymakli), and other couple on our tour had not seen any of the underground cities, the guide made a call and changed the visit to include Derinkuyu, instead. We thought this was very nice of him, and he got a nice tip!
The beginnings of this amazing region go back to the Tertiary period some 50 million years ago; craters and chimneys dominated the landscape. For hundreds of years, ancient people dug into the soft material to build dwellings, churches, monasteries, and underground cities.
The history of Cappadocia began in prehistoric times. It experienced many cultures like the Hatti culture; 2500-2000 BC. The Hittites settled in the region, after them, then the Assyrians: 2000-1800 BC organized their trading posts.
It was a full day, because of the long distance we drove, out of Goreme and back, but we got a chance to more of what Cappadocia has to offer. By the time we left the region, we were filled up with satisfaction over this wonderful place!
It is believed that this was the place where the first vocal religious ceremony was held by Christians, 1,700 years ago.
This Cathedral is of great historical importance. The first Christians who lived in Cappadocia during the Roman Empire era, turned this place into a huge Monastery when they were exposed to pressure.
The Cristians of that day, established chapels, churches, and multi-functional rock-carved places here. After the Mongols increased their pressure in Anatolia, the Seljuk Turks used the area of the Selime Cathedral as a castle. There is archaeological evidence that the longest resistance against the Mongols took place in this cathedral.
In modern times, the ancient Selime Cathedral, in the Ihlara Valley is famous for its size and the Ihlara Valley is also home to around 10,000 rock-carved places and over 100 rock-carved churches.
The pigeon poo was used for fertilizer.
We also visited this Underground City, before the end of the day
in the day, underground, is in the shape of a cross. Two long corridors, meeting only in the middle.
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Hello and Welcome to our Travel Blog Website, We enjoy writing about our experiences and taking photos of our adventuring along the way. Our names are: Daryl and Pen, but Daryl calls me “Bunny.” We met, quite randomly, whilst both… Read More