Ihlara Valley

The Ihlara Valley. The Ihlara Valley is a canyon, about 14km in length, with steep cliffs on both sides and the river Melendiz in the middle. It’s close to 40km to the south-west of Aksarai. On one side of the canyon lay villages Selimeh and Yaprahisar , on the opposite side – Ihlara and Belisirme in the middle. The valley flora are poplars and pussy-willows. There are narrow paths on both sides of the river, and plenty of ancient cavern churches there. Their number comes up to 535, 105 of them churches and caverns built by monks. The place is not crowded with tourists, comparing to Geremeh and Urgup, but you can still meet some here, especially Germans. Their interest, however, doesn’t go beyond the several churches marked with signs. These are the ones with intact wall-paintings.

To enter the valley one has to buy a ticket (1mln lire – $1,5). One can also get in without paying, of course. The ticket is valid for 1 day, but we used ours for 3 days, and nobody said a word.

The scenery is fantastic there. The cavern openings look great, if not shut in by landslips. See the photo:

Selimeh, the village we will be hopefully staying at, lies aside of the valley.

The landscape is broader here, and flatter, as you see. These are the cone rocks near Selimeh. The ploughed up land you see is vineyards. The scenery with poplar trees is so similar to the sites of Ukraine. Inside one of these cone rocks there is a cavern church I wish to see restored. .