Göreme

August 24, 2023

We were at the ticket office of the Derenkuyu underground city at eight. There were just two other punters and we had it mostly to ourselves. In a nutshell it was fantastic. The city descends to a depth of approximately 85 metres and is large enough to have sheltered as many as 20,000 people together with their livestock and food stores. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey and is one of several underground complexes found throughout Cappadocia. It could be closed from the inside with large rolling stone doors. Each floor could be closed off separately. Amenities included wine and oil presses, stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, and chapels.

Leigh hams it up with one of the stone doors.

Unique to the Derinkuyu complex and located on the second floor is a spacious room with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. It has been reported that this room was used as a religious school and the rooms to the left were studies.

Just outside the underground city is the old Greek Orthodox Church built in the nineteenth century. Unfortunately it was locked.

Then it was a rather uninspiring ride to Göreme via Uçhisar where stopped to enjoy a good lunch but at tourist prices. In Uçhisar we returned fully to the tourist route. The town is focused almost entirely on tourists to Cappadocia and it was swarming with foreigners. It was immediately easy to see why.

Riding down the hill to Göreme we started encountering Cappadocia's famous rock formations.

Poor camel being pimped for the tourist trade.

We headed to the Panorama Campsite situated on a hill a kilometer out of the town. We dumped our gear and rode into town where we booked tickets for us and the bicycles on the night bus to Trabzon on the Black Sea. From there we will cycle to the Georgian border, hopefully before our visas expire.

After the disaster that was Belisirma, the Panorama campsite is wonderful. Level pitches, clean ablution facilities, a large kitchen and dining area and best of all in this heat, a sparkling clean swimming pool.

The view from above the campsite this evening.

But first we are going to spend a touristy day in Göreme. More about that later.

Today's ride: 38 km (24 miles)
Total: 689 km (428 miles)

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