Silk Road Tour (Day II)

Today we left our hotel in Konya and headed over the Konya plain. This plain is the largest in all of Turkey and is located in Central Anatolia. As I looked out over the plain I thought of the various peoples that have traveled through and have left their mark on this land. The Silk Road passed through this area and many crumbling caravensarai's, dot the area along side the modern highway we travel on. I imagined 12th/13th centrury merchants and traders passing through with their camels and goods. I also imagined the ancient peoples who inhabitated this land such as the ancient inhabitants of Catalhoyuk some 9,000 years ago or the Hitities some 4,000 years ago, as well as and the Phrygians, and Romans and Seljuk Turks. Our bus stopped suddenly once for a sheppard and his flock of sheep that needed to cross the street. I wondered where the shepard was leading his flock for water and shelter. It was so beatiful to see him tend to an injured or sick sheep by puttinh him on his donkey and riding off with him!

As we continued along the small modern highway our bus stopped periodically for "humanitarian needs" and we also stopped for lunch in the small town of Agzikarahan for lunch at a restored Caravansarai. It was a beautifully restored Caravansarai and I imagined how it must have provided shelter, drink, food, a bath and a place to stay for the merchant and his animals for the night. It was nice to see how the old mixes with the new, as modern bus stops and modern buses mix with the old, showing that time doesn't change our common humanity.

About 40 miles outside of Konya we stopped to visit Catalhoyuk, one of the world’s earliest urban settlements. The settlement dates back 9,000 years and was first excavated by James Mellaart in 1958. Today we had the privilege of having a private tour of the site by the current head of excavations, Dr. Ian Hodder, of Stanford University. The mounds visible on the site have shown to cover the remains of 13 layers of buildings dating from 6800-5700 BCE. The dwellings were mainly mud-brick with an entrance by ladder on the roof. Ancestors were buried under the floors of the homes causing archeologists to deduce that the houses also doubled as shrines. When the house began to wear, they were half dismantled and the bottom half filled in (to perhaps allow for further burials) and then the new house was built above it. Many finds have been found throughout the site including remains of the dead, murals, bulls’ head plaster reliefs, mother goddess figurines, tools and the earliest known pottery, most of which is housed in Ankara’s Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.

Then it was on to Cappadocia! Situated deep in the heart of Turkey, Cappadocia is a world of lunar landscapes and surreal scenery, of ancient churches, and cave dwellings, of picture-postcard villages and big cities steeped in tradition. The history of this region is long. Cappadocia was once the heart of the Hitite Empire from 1800 -1200 BCE, then came under Persian control followed by Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman rule. Cappadocia is truly the crossroads of East and West, with its inhabitants having encountered different peoples from all around the region.
Cappadocia’s heavenly backdrop was the result of volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. The area was covered with volcanic tuff that has been sculpted over millennia into fantastic shapes by water and erosion. The landscape therefore is truly out of this world. Huge mushroom shaped stones and “fairy chimneys”, soft ridges and deep valleys, acute edges and mild undulations fill the landscape-all riddled with numerous ancient cave dwellings like a Swiss cheese.
We drove into Cappadocia in the late afternoon and explored the underground city of Kaymakli. This underground hide-away was built thousands of years ago by the inhabitants of this region to use a place of refuge when invaders threatened them. Here they fortified themselves for up to six months at a time. We toured this underground city with flashlight in hand. It was a truly other worldly encounter. We walked down and up stairways of stone, and through low, narrow passageways at times practically on our knees. To imagine that thousands of people lived in these sunless, cramped, damp surrounding really gave me pause. I passed the kitchen, the church, the catacombs. Room after room after room we explored going down in total four levels. All these amazing rooms are underground, all carved from the tuff stone. It was a delight to step out into the sunshine after our tour (of under an hour). I could only imagine how the ancient Hitites must have felt after months underground.
Last stop for the day was a visit to a modern day “cave dwelling” home. These were friends of our tour guide, Serhan and they allowed us the privilege of stopping by their home for some Turkish apple tea and a short visit. This couple have lived in this cave home they dug out of the rock 25 years ago. It was a lovely hmome and oh what a view!