Turkey - Kaymakli Underground City - Day 6

Yes! it snowing in Cappadocia and according to Kaan our guide we were lucky as our wish to see snow came true. What a wonderful thing on the 6th day. Everyone was very happy and excited about it especially we don't see snow in Malaysia, a place that is warm & humid.

It's beautiful. A white and cold atmosphere.

One thing for sure the kids really enjoyed the moment, making snow balls and having a great fun indeed.

Even the stray dog was getting herself comfortable in the hotel lobby.

It was snowing all the way to Kaymakli, the underground city. at least we had a change of scenery from the windows of our coach.

The journey from Burcu Kaya Hotel to Kaymakli is less than 30km and time to alight and face the cold winter again.

Kaymaklı Underground City is contained within the citadel of Kaymaklı in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. It was first opened to tourists in 1964.

Kaymaklı is one of the largest underground settlements in the region.

At last we were in a place that is warm and which we normally would not pick between warm and cool.

The houses in the village are constructed around the nearly one hundred tunnels of the underground city. The tunnels are still used today as storage areas, stables, and cellars. 

The tunnels are narrow with steep incline. There are four floors open to the public, the space is well organized with ventilation shafts.

The high number of storage rooms and areas for earthenware jars on the fourth floor indicates the economic strength of the region.

On the second floor is a church with a nave and two apses. Located in front of the apses is a baptismal font, and on the sides along the walls are seating platforms. The church level also contains some living spaces.

The third floor contains the most important areas of the underground compound: storage places, wine or oil presses, and kitchens. 

The depth of the ventilation shaft is about 80 meters in total.

The ventilation shaft can also be seen from the 4th floor. It is a vertical well and passes all floors down like on the elevator in an apartment. 

Such an amazing engineering effort of the olden days.

This underground city has not been fully discovered and only 4 floors have been found, it is definitely one of the largest underground settlements in the region. It is estimated about 3,500 people lived in this community.

That's a great underground city visit and it's back into the cold. I found it very interesting and would say it was one of the best places I visited in this tour.

After travelling nearly 150km from Kaymakli we reached Lake Tuz (Salt Lake) which is the second largest lake in Turkey with an area of 1,665 km2 surface area and one of the largest hypersaline lakes in the world. It is located in the Central Anatolia Region

Cosmetics are being make from the water, salt and mud for skin softening treatments. Well, how good or effective one has to probe further. 

The display of some of the products made from the Salt Lake.

Lunch at somewhere in between Bolu and the Salt Lake, the bus broken down and time was lost while repairing it.

Beef cooked on iron plate (Taruk Sac Kavurma) with chilli and carrot which was served with rice, the only complaint was that the portion too small. As far as taste is concerned it was too too bad.

At least we were served with different kind of Turkish meal. Little did we know we have to wait a little bit longer for the bus repair which means we have to spend more Lira spent at the rest area.

Due the the bad winter weather we missed stopping at Ankara the capital of Turkey and we reached our next hotel at Bolu Termal Otel for another quick stay with dinner and breakfast included as usual. Another visit to a Turkish thermal pool in a hotel.