I remember as a kid playing role playing games, and you would have to explore caves and dungeons which was like a secret world under the group. Could you imagine a whole city or villages underground like right out of the mind of Tolkien. Well believe it or not there is such a place, in Goreme Turkey. The ground is soft and easy to dig and being in the central Anatolia Plateau it’s always been a area in contention by empires… from Hittites to Greek to Roman’s to Persians to Muslim and Turkish nomads this area been fought over time and time again. Because of this history people have resorted to not only building houses out of cave but they even have built impressive cities into the ground and one of the biggest can house 20,000 people and their animals and can go as deep as 7 stories down into the earth… And there isn’t just one of them but the area dotted with underground towns and cities. These were dug but people who fled the surface in times of danger or were escaping prosecution. Amoung these groups were Christians who carved out some of the earliest churches of Christianity. Of course you can enter these undergrounds structures but the best way to see Goreme is by air… I attached some of my photo’s in the link
Hi @SunnyEren
Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos. I love Turkey.
Take a look at some of my other posts, in December of 2017 I did the mother of all tours of Turkey…I am happy to share them with the world…please enjoy!
Yeah @SunnyEren and I bet if we could have known local guides when we were like kids, we could have mapped all those awesome hiding places we’ve been to. Great post btw and I’d love to explore these caves and churches someday.
Oh I know what you mean, my son was so excited he ran from cave to cave getting into little nooks and crannies.
I do have some Panoramic and 360 Photo’s of the caves of Goreme and from the hot air balloon over the land. I was lucky normally you can not take a picture of the ancient churches being a UNESCO site and tourist attraction but I had a 360 camera from LG which doesn’t use a flash nor makes a sound and easily hides within my hand so I was able to take some fantastic shots if you like to see. I usually don’t share these as some browsers it doesn’t work. If you have a VR set these look like you are in the caves… or riding hundred of meters above Goreme (located nearer the bottom)
Hi@SunnyEren
Nice additions indeed. Post more.
Best.