When Darren and I were in Goreme, Turkey, we did a day trip to explore the Goreme Panorama, the underground cities, and Pigeon Valley. My mom and Don had done this tour when they travelled there and really thought it was worth checking out. I was fascinated by the underground cities and couldn’t wait to explore.
My step-dad is a tall dude. And when they returned from their trip and were telling us stories of Don almost hunched in half trying to squeeze through these narrow tunnels and not being able to stand up straight till the hit an ‘open area’, we were all howling with laughter. I think it was one of those conversations after a couple glasses of wine and you maybe had to be there, but it was hilarious. Don is a retired Victoria firefighter so he is always thinking of how one would escape from a particular environment. With only one way in and one way out and with people lined up like a never-ending conga line, there would be no way to get out in a hurry. A little disconcerting. So needless to say an experience like this wouldn’t be high up on the old ‘to-do’ list for people who are in anyway claustrophobic, or afraid of earthquakes.
All that aside, Darren and I were pretty excited to check this out. It didn’t disappoint. The pictures I post below in no way do this place justice. And thank goodness for high iso camera capabilities because with the exception of a few light bulbs in the pathways, there really wasn’t any light until you hit an open area. What these pictures also won’t convey is the extreme body odour and damp musty smell. I guess I never really thought too too much about air circulation before we entered. The smell could have made me gag repeatedly. And by the end of our tour Darren and I were both dizzy. One because we were probably oxygen deprived, and two from the body odour, I swear!
The purpose of these underground cities was to hide from invaders. I was amazed at how well they were built and all that they took into consideration while building. There was a church, stables (imagine the smell then!), an area for grape crushing and making wine (my kinda city!), and even a cemetery. There were even big boulders that could be pushed across to block invaders, Indiana Jones style! So neat.
I am not a tall person at all and I found it quite uncomfortable being hunched over for so long. So I really felt for Darren who is 6 feet. Well I laughed at him then, but I did feel sorry for him. After walking like that we would eventually come into a clearing where we could stand up. You can imagine my surprise when we enter a clearing after following the school class in front of us, and there is a photo exhibition on display of Goreme. Awesome.
Anyways here are a couple poor quality shots, but you get the idea.
This is Darren’s “enough pictures already look”.
by admin
So neat to see the places you’ve explored, love your sense of adventure!
Wow the underground city tour has come along way – they didn’t have those lights or photo exihbits when we were there. It was the Indiana Jones boulders that bothered me while down in the tunnels- thinking some crazy person might decide to roll one across. I love Goreme. A truly different world.