One of the afternoons in Urgup/Cappadocia, Josh took the boys to the underground city. I didn’t go because 1) it was time for the baby to nap and we had been hiking all morning 2) supposedly the underground city is made up of all these connecting tunnels, some that you have to kneel and crawl through and I didn’t see how that would be feasible with a baby on my back (and that part sounded a little claustrophobia inducing) 3) it looked to be almost an hour away according to the map, which did not sound like a fun drive with a tired, yelly baby.
It turns out that except for the necessary nap for Camille, all the other obstacles weren’t an issue. It was only about 1/2 an hour away and the boys didn’t want to go down any of the really narrow tunnels because they were small and pitch dark, so I wouldn’t have had to worry about squeezing through tunnels with baby. Either way, I enjoyed my quiet afternoon in my cave while the boys went and explored this cave.
From what I remember reading in the guidebook, thousands and thousands of people lived in these underground cities to hide from enemies/religious persecution. I should probably google that to make sure it’s accurate, but I don’t feel like doing that right now. Josh said the craziest thing was that everything was underground, including areas where they would grow food. He couldn’t figure out how you could grow food without sunlight. Maybe they just stored food for the times they were in hiding?
They had access to plenty of grapes. Cappadocia is wine country.
I can’t say a lot of interesting things about these photos, because I didn’t take them and I wasn’t there, but I do know the story behind this one. These underground cities (there are over 100 of them, but 2 or 3 main ones open to the public) are huge with tour groups and while Josh and the boys were there, they heard a tour guide talking about this well and how it provided water for all the thousands of people that used to live underground. He then took out a small pebble or rock and told the group to listen as he reverently dropped it into the well. It fell down, down, down and the group all oohed and ahhed and nodded when they heard the “splash.”
After the tour group left, Josh took the boys over to the well, because he didn’t hear a splash and he tossed a coin in and it clattered and banged all the way down until they heard a “thunk” as it hit the dry bottom. As the boys were telling me this story, they were laughing so hard that they had tears in their eyes at the idea that the tour guide made a big production about hearing water in the well when it was so clearly dry.
Some of those areas are looking pretty narrow to me . . . maybe it was a good thing I didn’t go along.
If you want to read more about Kaymakli from someone who has more information than I do, I found this link that describes what is on each of the 4 levels that are open to the public: http://www.anadol.com/kaymakli.htm or there’s always my friend, wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaymakl%C4%B1_Underground_City
Maybe a table? A millstone? A door?
**Josh let me know that this is stone is actually part of their security system. The stone would be turned on edge, rolled to block the archway in the photo below, and wedged in place to keep intruders from entering.
The main passages had some light (you can see the wiring running in this picture, but I guess a lot of the passages are completely dark. Josh said the boys started out with the idea of exploring all the side tunnels, but decided it was too dark. In all they saw stables, a church, living areas, kitchens, granaries, wineries, ventilation shafts, everything required to maintain a city, all underground.
