Cappadocia-day seven: Cities Underground and Hiking: Part Two

After lunch, we headed to Rose Valley for a hike. Due to the strenuous nature of the hike and the heat, Carol elected to stay in the van with Rajeep, our very gracious driver. The rest of us headed off into the heat. We meet a Turkish family at the trailhead--the father of the family spoke english. He informed us that we were very privileged to be hiking into this valley--that very few tourists go there, and that he brought all of his family, friends and visitors there because it was so beautiful. We felt dutifully privileged.

Rose Valley

The group before the hike.

Before the trail plunged down into the valley, a man with a rope came running by us. Soon we saw a beautiful horse running through the trees, with the man in pursuit. At one point the horse had run out onto a part of the mesa that tapered to a cliff overlooking the valley. The horse realized his mistake and was able to dodge the man and head back to more open land. The last we saw of them, the horse was galloping up the path, his head and tail held high; the man was far behind.

Can you see the horse at the end of the road? But he
managed to elude his pursuer...

and took off! No idea if he was eventually caught or not.

As we slipped and slid down the trail to the valley floor, the white cliffs rose up around us. The scenery was stunningly beautiful--I was always far behind everyone as I tried to capture the feeling of those faintly pink cliffs faces all around us.

Claire showing off the grapes along the path to the trailhead.

Starting down--whoa it was steep! As you can see, Olive already
slid down part of the way!

Cliffs rising around us--weird cliffs I might add.

Still going down.

Through a tunnel.

Cool, eh?

Underpasses.

There was a small cafe about halfway through the valley, run by a young man and his golden retriever. He had drinks and snacks and tents if you wanted to spend the night. I would love to have done so; I can only imagine how the valley would look with a full moon.

Green and white.

On the trail at the valley floor.

I wonder how they carved those windows
out so high up?

The trail

It was somewhat cooler on the valley floor-
but the sun was still fierce.

The rock looks like faces!

More trail

Greeted by the Golden Retriever at the Cafe.

Liz

His name was Lucky--he found a cool place to lie.

Anne

Shadows

Light

Moi again

Liz and I

All too soon we reached the end of the valley and met up with Rajeep and Carol.

Ladder up to a camping cave.

Olive and Claire

Dwellings carved into the cliffs above.

More cliff dwellings.

The ever-present sun.

Olive and Liz-another tunnel.

The valley was shady for the most part.

Going down again.

Hussein and Claire

Through the tunnel.

Liz, Anne, Bob and Olive in the tunnel.

Coming to the end of the valley-back out
into the sun.

Rock faces.

Arch

Olive, Anne and Liz

Bird watching

Pinnacles

The road out

The Church--only really tall or agile people went
to Church apparently.

After dinner, we went to see the Whirling Dervishes. It was held in one of the Caravanserai: A caravanserai was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of trade routes covering Asia, North Africa, and South-Eastern Europe, especially along the Silk Road.


While last night's Turkish Night was fun and entertaining, the Whirling Dervishes was a completely different experience; more like a religious experience than amusement. I've no pictures of the actually Dervishes--pictures weren't allowed. Neither was clapping or talking. It really did feel like a religious experience. 

The Caravanserai where the Sama (the Whirling Dervish ceremony)
was held.

Weird orange and blue from the lighting as it got dark.

Drinking our apple tea while waiting for the ceremony to begin.

This is not my photo-we weren't allowed to take pictures. 

The Dervishes belong to the Mevlevi order; a Sufi order founded in Konya. We are going to be stopping in Konya tomorrow, so I will elaborate on the origins of the order in that post. They are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of spinning as a form of dhikr (remembrance of God). Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi path; the whirling is part of the formal Sama ceremony and the participants are properly known as semazen-s. The current master of the order is Sheikha Nur, born Nur Artiran.