Ihlara Valley

A beautiful ancient gorge in the kapadokya region. We spent the night outside the megalithic ancient cave cathedral at Selime, and woke up to this magical fairy tale landscape: a crescent shaped gorge with troglodyte cave dwellings carved into sandstone rocks shaped to points like witches hats. We clambered its eroded corridors early doors before anyone arrived and visited the tomb of sultan Selime. We drove straight on to Ihlara and entered the gorge via the 300 steps and spent the afternoon exploring the cave churches along the river in the canyon in the summer rain. We had dinner at a town on the hill called Guzelyurt (beautiful land) before parking for the night at Yusek church on a hill top overlooking the town and the volcano, and went to sleep to a thunderstorm that lit and shook the whole sky for several hours.Read more