There are 36 underground cities in Cappadocia and today we decided to visit one of them; Kaymakli. Kaymakli is said to be the widest while the other popular one, Derinkuyu, is the deepest. We rented a car from our hotel, it was an older car with a lot of kilometers on it. It looked like it was the owners' brother's car or something like that. We left Goreme around 9 am. We had to fill-up the car as soon as we left and that is when we realized how expensive gas is here; it is one of the most expensive places we have seen so far at almost 5 Lira per liter We followed the signs to Kaymakli Underground City, only to arrive in front of what looked like a market. There were no indications on where the ticket booth and main entrance were located. We waited a little while watching tour buses coming in, we followed them through the little market and up the street filled with shops to the entrance.
Guides were there, ready to take people on tour and trying to convince us that without a guide we were not going to understand any of it. We politely declined and bought our tickets. The tour is clearly indicated with arrows once you are inside. At the same moment we started our descent, a big group walked by us. During our exploration of Kaymakli, we saw many tour groups. They were all going really fast, just walking by the rooms, not having much time to take good pictures or even try to imagine what was life like for persecuted Christians. We were glad we didn't pay for a guide as they too were rushing their clients through. We spend a good amount of time in almost every rooms, looking at all the nooks and crannies, taking many pictures and even exploring paths that were not lit. Good thing we had brought our head lamp. We really enjoyed our tour but it probably wouldn't be as fun if someone was claustrophobic! We had to walk bent over pretty much the entire tour as the rooms and passages were very small. After over an hour, we came back out and drove to Ihlara village to visit the valley and it's many churches (pictures and story in the next post).
Guides were there, ready to take people on tour and trying to convince us that without a guide we were not going to understand any of it. We politely declined and bought our tickets. The tour is clearly indicated with arrows once you are inside. At the same moment we started our descent, a big group walked by us. During our exploration of Kaymakli, we saw many tour groups. They were all going really fast, just walking by the rooms, not having much time to take good pictures or even try to imagine what was life like for persecuted Christians. We were glad we didn't pay for a guide as they too were rushing their clients through. We spend a good amount of time in almost every rooms, looking at all the nooks and crannies, taking many pictures and even exploring paths that were not lit. Good thing we had brought our head lamp. We really enjoyed our tour but it probably wouldn't be as fun if someone was claustrophobic! We had to walk bent over pretty much the entire tour as the rooms and passages were very small. After over an hour, we came back out and drove to Ihlara village to visit the valley and it's many churches (pictures and story in the next post).
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