After breakfast in your hotel, you will be picked up around 09:00 to join a small group for your full day guided tour.
Today you will visit the famous underground city of Derinkuyu, which was carved out and created as a defense and hiding site during the spread of Christianity during its early period. Dozens of similar bunker style settlements have been discovered throughout the region and Derinkuyu is the most extensive of them all. There are hundreds of entrances from the outside, thousands of ventilation ducts and seemingly endless passageways connecting countless chambers used for dwelling, worship, cooking, stabling, and storage of all kinds. You will be enchanted and amazed by the subterranean inhabitants’ innovative engineering.
You will also descend into the Ihlara Valley for a hike along a meandering stream where you will, no doubt, feel as though you have been dropped into another geographical region. In a stark contrast to the rocky atmosphere above, this lush gorge, 100 meters deep in places, is an oasis full of native flora and fauna. You will come across a few small, cultivated garden patches that are tended by locals and you may even encounter a shepherd or two tending their sheep. You will find large boulders upon which to rest and soak up the sunshine next to the wonderful little stream that you will be hiking along and, if you will be in the valley during the summertime, you will find mulberry bushes loaded with the sweet purple fruit. Explore the many small cave chapels and churches, of which several are frescoed, that were dug out of the valley’s cliff walls during the time of Christianity’s early development.
Before the tour’s end, you will visit the monasteries at Selime village.
Lunch will be served at an appropriate juncture during the day and after the tour, around 17:30, you will be returned to your hotel.
