TR: Rose Valley Hike – Goreme, Turkey (July 2005)
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For our last day in Goreme, we hired a guide to take us on a walking tour on trails surrounding the area. The tour was about 10 miles and took us through quiet, yet historical and wonderfully scenic, valleys and mesas.
We began at Cavusin and hiked up toward the mesa. After walking along the mesa for a bit, we descended down into Rose Valley. These are some of the pictures.
My dad & I.
Tortoise.
Desert flowers speckled the arid land.
A stop for lunch.
Centuries old paintings on the walls of an old carved out building.
Valley view.
The walls of the valleys were often full of these- pigeon houses.
Pigeon houses were established primarily to gather droppings which were used for fertilizer. But, cultural links between natives of the area and pigeons seem to go back for centuries, long before even the Turks were Turks. During the “pagan” era, the natives that inhabited what is now Turkey believes that the soul of a dead person was carried to the gods by pigeons. This idea has passed on through cultures, and even lingers as part of a Islamic hybridism today.
An old building carved into the soft walls of the valley.
The valleys were also full of fruit- especially apricots, plums, and mulberries.
After the Rose Valley ended, we headed back up to Love Valley- geologically a little different, but every bit as interesting.
Ergo, our guide.
And we concluded the walk by enjoying some Turkish tea, which can be purchased in very large sized bags. Turks do love their tea!
We enjoyed some more carpets and carpet-making.
We enjoyed our last night in Turkey with a true Turkish meal.
And, we couldn’t decide what we would miss most. Would it be the ColaTurka?
Or the many friends we made, like Mustafa….
… or Sahin.
Probably, what I have most missed, is just the sheer beauty and mystique of Goreme. There’s nothing else quite like it.
Turkey is a wonderful place, and I hope to revisit it again some day. Stay tuned for the second part of my trip: Bulgaria.
View other blog entries from this trip:
Istanbul
Goreme Goodness
The Green Tour, Cappadocia
Rose Valley Hike – Goreme
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