Saturday, August 14, 2010

IHLARA VALLEY - CAPPADOCIA

If you are visiting the legend land of Cappadocia a trip to the Ihlara valley is highly recommended. This 100 m deep gorge is located between the Ihlara village and the Selime village. There are several different entrance points. In all it is about 14 km long and can be divided into hikes of two or three, or more hours which are not at all difficult.
The dramatic and scenic canyon was created by the Melendiz river which still flows at the bottom through a lush greenery of natural beauty with a great variety of plant and animal life. As already said the walk is easy and mostly in the shade provided by wonderful trees, among them poplars and pistachios. The stroll is from time to time interrupted by lovely vine yards.
The typical Cappacocian landscape pf rocks and columns carved through erosion is present in the valley as well.
Numerous of small medieval churches, chapels and monasteries are hewn and cut into the rock, many of them semi ruined and in poor condition. They are decorated with colorful frescoes and  quite a few can be visited.
Tenths of thousands of people once lived here and proof of their presence can be found throughout the valley.
Willow trees border the riverbed.

And here is the photographer!

6 comments:

aurorafedora said...

oh wow! that first pic with the cows looks so unreal, like something out of a fantasy! all the river pics are amazing!! hello uri!!

Dawn of LaTouchables said...

Yael, this place has a magical aura--enhanced by the wonderful photographs of the photographer! He really has a great eye--and I so enjoyed seeing the variety of this great nature/culture world!

Pesky Cat Designs said...

What a beautiful and surreal place! Thanks for taking us on an amazing photo tour.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend Yael! :)

Eva said...

This is really amazing! Turkey can be so lovely at times. So green. It was a surprise to me!

Fallon said...

AMAZING!

Unknown said...

Wow Beautiful !!!... These are very natural and amazing... Excellent post... cappadocia tour is a wonderful tourism place to visit.