Today we toured ourselves around the region with the aim of staying ahead of the army of tourist buses.
First stop Kaymakli and the Underground City.
We had a few problems with a lack of road signs and a GPS that could not locate our position and after 54 kms for a 18 km trip we were there.
The countryside is extraordinarily pretty.
The land is farmed in a very natural way with apricots, melons, tomatoes and raisin grapes dotted all over the hills.
Considering the dryness of the sand and the heat of the sun, everything grows very well.

The Underground City was fascinating. More than 8 levels down with alleys and rooms, ventilation shafts and light wells. Huge wheel shape stones that the residents would roll across the entrance when under attack.
Churches everywhere. Iconic paintings and decorations all preserved underground and in caves.

Many of the fairy towers are used today as dovecotes. The pigeons nest there and their manure is collected for farming.

We climbed to the top of the castle in Ucaisir and went to the river town of Avanos.
At that point Alex fell off a stair and hurt her ankle so she is resting up. Hopefully it will get better quickly for her few days in Istanbul.

14 Jul This entry was published on July 14, 2012 at 2:27 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.