Cappadocia: Pigeon Valley, the city of Uchisar and the Valley of Love. Valleys of Cappadocia

From the village of Ihlara to the village of Serime, the Ihlara gorge stretches between three volcanoes. Already in the 4th century, the construction of churches began here, 13 of which can now be visited; in total, 105 buildings are known. Many of them have preserved ancient frescoes.

The churches in the valley do not have any single style; Syrian, Egyptian and Byzantine motifs can be found here. Agachalti (“Church under the trees”) is perhaps the most famous complex of Ihlara. Of the three levels, only one has survived, but it is this one that is decorated with frescoes dedicated to the worship of the Magi, the Ascension of Christ and Daniel with the lions.

No less interesting are the churches of Kokar-Kilise ("Fragrant Church") and Yylanli-Kilise ("Church of Snakes"). In the first you can find frescoes depicting scenes from the Bible, while in the second they are dedicated to sinners and hell. The monastic settlement of Guzelyurt, founded by Saint Gregory the Theologian, is located on the northern bank of the valley.

In the main church, a carved wooden iconostasis has been preserved, which was a gift from Nicholas I. To the northeast of the settlement lies the Monastic Valley with its amazing rock complexes. You can write endlessly about the churches and monasteries of Ihlara, but it’s best to just go there and see everything with your own eyes.

Imagination Valley Derwent

People don't come to the Derwent Valley for fun or spectacular sights. People come here for the unique landscape of the area, which creates amazing views.

Just use your imagination a little and you will be able to distinguish the silhouettes of various objects and animals in the local rocks. At some point, you may feel as if you have completely left the Earth and found yourself on another planet.

Getting to the Derwent Valley is not difficult at all. Just take the Goreme - Avanos bus, and from there walk 5 kilometers towards Yurgup.

Valley of the Pashabag Monks

When traveling through Cappadocia, be sure to stop by Zelve. In addition to the rock monastery, there is an interesting natural attraction - stone pillars. They are hills of volcanic rock whose shape resembles mushrooms. The place where the stone pillars are located is called Pasabag Valley.

The Pasabag Valley got its name due to the fact that grapes have been grown here for centuries. Centuries-old traditions continue today - one of the best Turkish wines is produced here.

The second name of the valley is the Valley of the Monks. It is difficult to say where this name came from. There is an opinion that once upon a time, among the stone pillars, there were churches and cells where monks lived.

Valley of Love

"Valley of Love" is a place in central Turkey in Cappadocia. Here, as a result of volcanic eruptions about 70 million years ago, the area was cut by deep cracks and covered with layers of volcanic magma. Further, under the influence of the sun, winds, rains and other natural factors, softer volcanic rocks were weathered and as a result, amazing bizarre mountains, cones, freaks, stone pillars and phalluses were obtained, thanks to the latter the valley was called the “Valley of Love”.

Travelers here have the feeling that they are in some kind of fairyland. Especially famous here are the “mushrooms with caps”, which have become a symbol of Cappadocia. This place is often called the "Land of Moonscapes" or " Lost World"Despite these desert landscapes, Cappadocia has always been popular with people.

Valley of Pigeons

The Valley of Pigeons is one of the most beautiful places Cappadocia. The length of the valley is about 4000 meters, and it is located between the village of Goreme and high point Cappadocia - Ukhchasar.

The history of this unusual place goes back to the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The reason for the creation of dovecotes was the lack of fertile soil, and the best fertilizer for vineyards was obtained from pigeons.

The valley is a cluster of rocks with numerous tunnels, windows and nests of pigeons, of which there are thousands. On the rocky walls you can see various designs in red and blue colors, which were applied using a special mineral to attract birds.

Pigeons in Cappadocia are highly valued even today, so various measures are taken to protect them from predators.

Cappadocia Valley

Cappadocia is the historical name of a unique area in central Turkey. What's so amazing about it? First of all, it is necessary to note the strange landscape that was formed about 70 million years ago. Thanks to volcanic eruptions, the earth was covered with deep cracks and lava mixed with geological rocks.

Gradually, under the influence of water, sun and wind, separate hills of bizarre shapes and outlines formed from the volcanic rock. Strange hilly valleys and rocks sometimes have such bizarre shapes that it is difficult to believe in their natural origin.

Our ancestors also surrounded them with a mystical aura, as can be seen by looking at the rock inscriptions and drawings in the caves of Cappadocia. Many of these valleys are united in Museums under open air and are included in the list world heritage UNESCO.

Sights of Cappadocia

Day 1, Cappadocia: Meskendir Valley, Red and Rose Valleys, Cavusin city
Day 2, Cappadocia: Pasabag, Zelve and Dervent valleys, Urgup city
Day 3, Cappadocia: Pigeon Valley, Uchisar city and Valley of Love
Day 4, Cappadocia: Görkünder, Zemi valleys and failure in the Balkan valley
Day 5, Cappadocia: Goreme Open Air Museum

The next Cappadocian day began with Pigeon Valley(Güvercınlık Vadisi), which is located near Goreme.

The scheme found on the Internet turned out to be of little use, so we went on a whim, knowing only that we needed to eventually get to Uchisar. Having reached the fork, we chose the leftmost one of the three gorges.

Gradually the path became less and less trampled, until it eventually ran into a sheer cliff. We had to return to the fork.

We chose the rightmost gorge and were not mistaken, it led us to Uchisar(Uçhisar). The city is located on a hill and can be seen from afar, from almost anywhere in Cappadocia. The landscape is typical, fabulous.

In the center of Uchisar there is a fortress, to which it takes 10-15 minutes to walk up the hill. This 60-meter fortress is considered the highest point in Cappadocia. The entire hill is built up with hotels.

The road to the fortress is replete with tourist shops selling necessary and not so necessary junk.

Entrance to the fortress is paid, but only to the very top. We decided to start our exploration from below, going around the fortress on the left side.

We never made it to the paid top, because we climbed up from the other side of it and from there we admired the surrounding landscapes to our heart’s content.

Cappadocia never ceases to amaze with its bizarre forms, when it seems that nature can’t do anything funnier, something like this appears.

Million dollar view!

After enjoying the views from Uchisar, we headed towards Valley of Love(Bağlıdere Vadisi).

Love Valley's calling card. Guess why it's called that))

Farewell - another gnome house.

According to tradition, we reached Goreme on foot.

Helpful information

What to pay attention to: if you want to get through the Pigeon Valley to Uchisar, go along the rightmost gorge.
Ticket price to Uchisar fortress: 5 lira
Working hours: from 08:00 to sunset.

Valley of Love - aka Valley of Phalluses

Cappadocia has earned worldwide fame thanks to rock sculptures created by nature itself - giant tuff “mushrooms”, multi-colored stone dunes... There is even a camel carved by the wind! The best words to describe local landscapes are “alien” and “fantastic”. Meanwhile, the origin of these miracles is completely earthly.

Millions of years ago, volcanoes raged here, spewing tons of ash and lava and covering the rocks and valleys with them. Under the influence of rain and winds, softer rocks were washed out and weathered, and those that were stronger protruded to the surface. This is how peribadjalars were formed - single-peaked and multi-peaked pillar rocks with “caps” on the tops. The most bizarre peribajalars can be seen in the Valley of Love. They say it was named so because nothing can be heard here except birdsong. But if you remember another, “folk” name - the Valley of the Phalluses, then no explanation is needed!

Landmarks of Cappadocia - and underground cities, the largest of which, Kaymakli and Derinkuyu, are called by the Turks the eighth wonder of the world. They were discovered by accident and not so long ago - in the 60s of the last century. On the upper floors of Derinkuyu the Hittites were still hiding from their enemies. Then the city was deepened and expanded by many successive peoples, who also had to hide, and the first Christians, who were persecuted, adapted it to their needs.

These underground structures are called cities almost without exaggeration. For example, Derinkuyu goes 8 floors deep, and in some places 18, and has 1,200 connected underground passages premises, has many ventilation shafts and wells. Thousands of people could live in such a city, and Greek historians claim that the entire army of Alexander the Great stopped here for the night! But archaeologists have not yet discovered any traces of the life activity of the inhabitants of underground cities. This is such an unsolved mystery!

Cave Suite - $945 per night

Modern buildings of Cappadocia, the height of which does not exceed 6.5 m (an exception is made for minarets), fit organically into the surrounding landscape. The houses consist of two parts: above ground, built from volcanic tuff, and underground, carved into the rock. Due to the fact that the air temperature underground does not change and remains at +15 degrees, the dungeon can serve as a refuge from both heat and cold.

But, going deeper into the rocks, local residents take with them all the benefits of civilization. Signs of present-day Cappadocia - solar panels and satellite dishes on the roofs of houses, cars in cave-garages, comfortable hotels, restaurants and entertainment centers. We were shown the beautifully equipped hotel "Kaya", which means "rock", the premises of which are, for the most part, carved out of the rock. High vaulted ceilings and chisel marks on the rough walls, coolness infused with the smell of stones, but at the same time comfort. And privacy is a luxury for the modern urban neurasthenic! A single-occupancy “cave” can be rented for $110 per day, a double-occupancy one for $150.

And if you want to relax “in a rich way,” you can stay at the Anatolien House boutique hotel near the town of Avanos. There we visited one of the three-room cave suites - the so-called Roman room. It has its own museum exhibition in a recess behind glass - vases, jugs, plates from the Roman era - taking you back to the past, and a wall-mounted TV, Jacuzzi bathtub and shower cabin bring you back to the present day. The hotel has a small grotto-shaped pool - if you turn one tap, red wine will flow, the other - white. A day of such heavenly life costs $945. Expensive? Out of season, the owners are willing to give up $20

http://animalworld.com.ua

“Here in Cappadocia is one of the wildest places in the world. Mountains of soft volcanic tuff were blown by winds and centuries, turning into what seems to be the magic tricks of Antoni Gaudi - into figures of bizarre flowing outlines, which, in the absence of forests, served as shelter and housing. The wood was only for the door. Apartments and entire apartment buildings have been carved into these rocks since the times of the Hittites.
(Peter Weil “Genius of the Place”).

Cappadocia owes its formation to the action of two successive phenomena that took place as early as 65-62 million years ago. First this area, surrounded volcanic mountains, lava continually poured in, layer after layer, until the mountainous area became a relatively flat plateau. Then the volcanoes cooled and erosion began. Thanks to the sharply continental climate of Cappadocia with sudden and significant temperature changes, cracks began to form in the rocks of the solidified lava. Water and ice contributed to the destruction of the rocks, along with heavy rainfall and the influence of rivers. Over time, individual hills were formed from the volcanic rock. In place of the plateau, valley crevices formed.
And this is exactly how the “Stone Pillars” were formed - peribadjalars in the form of stone mushrooms and stone pillars of bizarre shapes and outlines. At the top of these pillars there are basalts, and at the bottom there are tuffs. Since tuffs are softer and more easily susceptible to the influence of nature, the tuff at the base of the basalt caps gradually erodes or crumbles, which leads to the thinning of the pillars themselves and their gradual collapse.

Valley of Glendalough in Ireland- a secret, cherished place. It is located half an hour from Dublin, however, inside it it is impossible to escape the feeling that you have climbed into a protected wilderness, and the rest of the world is behind the mountains.

"Glendalough" (sometimes spelled "Glendalough") means "valley of the two lakes" in Celtic (Gaelic) language. It is, indeed, a small wooded valley in the Wicklow Mountains. Wicklow Mountains short, similar to ours northern mountains: flat, with smoothed tops. Their slopes are covered with heather and gorse, with a forest zone beginning at the foot.

The road to Glendalough passes through Hollywood, a small village (less than 100 inhabitants) where the Hollywood Fair festival takes place in the summer. According to one version, the American commune of Hollywood got its name thanks to a native of this Irish village who emigrated to California in the mid-19th century.

From the village begins a 30 km route into the Glendalough valley, called " St. Kevin's Way"(St Kevin's Way). Pilgrims used to walk along this path, now tourists walk along it. At all National Park Wicklow Mountains riddled with paths. (Unfortunately, we did not have time to walk along the St. Kevin's path, but arrived in the valley by a banal bus. However, the views from the route were good).

The mountain slopes are covered with blooming heather

A few words must be said about Saint Kevin, since it was he who appeared as the “genius loci” of the Glendalough valley.

Irish saint Kevin of Glendalough came from a noble family, but, having accepted the teachings of Christ, he left his father’s house early and chose the fate of a hermit. In the depths of the Wicklow Mountains on the shore of a lake, he found a cave in which he spent several years in prayer and asceticism - in prayers so deep that, according to legend, a bird managed to build a nest in his hand and hatch its chicks. Here I can’t help but remember Bodhidharma (he and Kevin even crossed paths in time, although, most likely, they did not even suspect each other’s existence) and Francis of Assisi. He spent the first 9 years in continuous meditation in the Shaolin Mountains, and Francis found a common language with animals and knew how to re-educate them and make them peace-loving in a Christian way. Kevin was also famous for his miraculous effects on animals, birds and plants. For example, cows, after licking his clothes, sharply increased their milk yield.

Soon people flocked to the recluse who worked miracles. Monks began to settle near the cave, and ordinary people were also looking for an opportunity to communicate with an unusual person (again, milk yield). There was a need to build a monastery. Kevin went to the local lord-king with a request to allocate part of his lands for a monastery. The lord thought about it. It seems like a charitable cause, but it’s also a pity for the landowners. He had an old goose. And the landowner said: “Whatever territory the goose flies around, that’s what I’ll give you for a monastery.”

Kevin saw that the goose was about to throw off its legs, but was not embarrassed. He stroked him, scratched him, said something inspiring, so that the goose suddenly woke up from his senile slumber, perked up, soared into the sky and flew around the entire Glendalough valley with its two lakes. Well, so be it.

So in the middle of the 5th century a monastery arose in the Glendalough valley on the shores of the Lower Lake. Kevin made a pilgrimage to Rome and brought back holy relics from there. And then he ruled the monastery for another 60 years and died on June 3, 618, having lived, judging by ancient records, an absolutely incredible period of time - 120 years. The day of his veneration is June 3 (by the way, this saint is revered not only by the Western Church, but also by the Orthodox).

After his death, the monastery continued to grow stronger and expand. In fact, it turned into a monastic settlement with several churches, a monastic hostel, workshops, a library, and an inn for pilgrims. Peasants settled nearby, who could take refuge behind strong walls in a moment of danger.

St. Kevin's Monastery successfully survived several Viking raids, but could not resist the advance of the British. In 1398, the British destroyed the monastery and expelled the monks from the area.

Now there are only ruins on the site of the ancient monastic settlement. However, from the very first steps among these ruins there is a feeling of spirituality and goodness of this place. It is not for nothing that both pilgrims and tourists flock here. There is an expression “place of power”. It seems to me that in order to feel the spirit of the country, you must definitely visit holy places - those places that people have chosen to communicate with higher powers.

Glendalough Valley

We arrived in Glendalough in the evening. The sun was beginning to set.

Even as we approached, we saw in the thick of the trees a high round tower with a conical roof - I have seen such round towers only in Ireland: on the rock of Cashel, in Kilkenny and in Glendalough.

There is a parking lot in front of the entrance to the territory of the former monastery. There is a hotel for visitors - The Glendalough Hotel, it has a cafe and tourist office where can I get the diagram walking routes through the Glendalough Valley and the Wicklow Mountains. Many people come here for a few days and hike the surrounding mountains.

Double arched gates made of granite blocks lead to the “monastic city”.

Ancient street

We approach the round tower. Its height is 34 m.

It can be seen that the entrance to it is located at a certain height. In case of danger, they hid from enemies in the tower. In peaceful days it served as a bell tower.

Previously, there were about 120 such round towers in Ireland, but 20 have survived to this day.

Monastic cemetery. Stone slabs and Celtic crosses are also used as tombstones.

Ruin cathedral Peter and Paul - once the largest church in the Glendalough valley

Next to the cathedral there is a granite “Kevin Cross” (presumably 6-7 centuries)

Rectory and St. Kevin's Church

We cross the river over the bridge and follow the path to the lake

There are large stones in the middle of the forest

There is a round hole of unknown origin in the stone

Lower Lake

That's Lower Lake(Lower lake)

We walk along the path to Lake Superior. The slope is practically not felt.

Source

On the left side there are areas of wild forest, in the lowlands between the lakes there is almost a park area

Upper Lake

Approaching Lake Superior

Spreading oak

On the shore of the lake, hidden in a rock is the so-called “Kevin’s bed” - the very cave in which he lived. IN far corner The lakes contain the remains of old mines and a miners' village.

The lower lake is small and round, the Upper lake is very elongated and occupies a large area. There are trails around the lakes. Beautiful view the entire valley with both lakes opens from above if you climb above the valley along the path. Unfortunately, we did not have time to climb - for this we need to come to the Glendalough valley for a longer period of time.

We took another path back to the tourist office.

Well, and finally, practical information.

How to get to Glendalough Valley

Glendalough is located 40 km south of Dublin, but despite the popularity of this place, public transport doesn't come here. Buses from the private company St Kevin'S Bus operate between Dublin and Glendalough (schedule on the website www.glendaloughbus.com).

So it's better to drive your own car.