Turkey - Day Three - Cappaddocia

Late on Monday, we flew from Izmir to Cappadocia.  We arrived at 11:30 pm and then had a one hour drive to the small town, Urgup, where our hotel was located.  Cappaddoccia is famous for its landscape and for it cave houses and underground cities.  We reserved a "cave room" so we could get the feel from the beginning.  

Our Cappaddoccia visit included 1) a hike through the Red Valley; 2) a visit to an abandoned cave village; and 3) a visit to an underground city. 

Here is a view of our room in the cave hotel.

Clari poses in the "cave" bathroom.  There were sand grains on the floor that had fallen from the ceiling.

The hike up the Red Valley was wonderful.  The valley was filled with grape vines and fruit trees (see the small orchard behind us in the picture).  In the hills on all sides were rooms cut into the mountains.  You can see holes on mountains behind us.  These were mainly "pigeon houses".  The inhabitants used pigeon dung to fertilize their fields and used the eggs for eating and egg whites as mortar.

Clarissa and Lisa in the first cave room we saw.  There were also churches carved into the sides of the mountains.

Lisa and Clarissa showing the pigeon houses.

High above the Red Valley we had a wonderful view of the Cappaddoccian landscape.  Awesome!

A view of the abandoned homes in the cave village.

Erosion has created some very unique rock formations.

They told us that we should be careful around the rock formations but Clari and Lisa just had to try and push the rocks off their pedestals.

In the four story underground city.  There was a communal kitchen, sleeping rooms, storage rooms, a winery, a church and security and air circulation systems.  All of these were connected with by a maze of corridors . . .

Some of which were quite small.

This is a place known as pigeon valley because of all the pigeon houses carved into the hills.

Our last stop!  An ancient fortress built into the rock - it is called "The Camel".

After a busy day in Cappaddocia we drove back to the airport and flew to Istanbul where our fourth day adventures began.