Sultan Han and Saratli

We then had a 3 hour drive to Cappadocia, our home for the next two nights and en route stopped at the small town of Sultan Han, an isolated spot on the old Silk Road, to visit the 13th century Seljuk caravanserai which is apparently the largest in Turkey.

Of course the word caravan literally means a group of travellers journeying together and a caravanserai was a place where they would stop, particularly overnight.  It was safe refuge from marauding tribes and also somewhere to replenish water supplies.

Most typically a caravanserai was a building with a square or rectangular walled exterior, with a single portal wide enough to permit large or heavily laden beasts like camels to enter.  The courtyard was almost always open to the sky and the inside walls of the enclosure were kitted out with numerous animal stalls, bays, niches or chambers to accommodate merchants and their servants, animals, and merchandise.

There was also a huge covered hall which was designed for winter use and this one currently housed a rug exhibition.

 And very nice rugs they were too.

We then had an hour or so for lunch but neither of us felt particularly hungry so we just picked up a packet of crisps and a drink and sat in the park for a while.  These strange shaped things are supposed to resemble the rock formations in the Göreme Valley which we'll see later.

Before we left Konya this morning we'd asked Göksel if he could look online to see if we'd be passing a pharmacist as I'd run out of ibuprofen (I don't usually use it but the over exertion on the first day had left me struggling with hip pain and it was working better than paracetamol).  He told us it was unlikely but as we had time to spare in this town we thought we'd have a wander around and try to spot one (he'd also told us they were unrecognisable). 

No luck and so we walked back to the meeting place and as he'd already finished his lunch and we were 10 mins early we reminded him.  Looking on his phone there was one about 7 mins walk away but he kindly insisted on coming with me as a) I wouldn't know which shop it was and b) I might need "ibuprofen" to be translated.  Actually I was glad because the shop had moved further along the street, opposite the hospital (dur!) and so he was able to ask a passerby.  It was easily identifiable but I've now learnt that the word for pharmacy is excane and from then on we saw it in so many places - it almost seemed that 1 in 10 shops was a pharmacy.

Everyone we meet seems very friendly, this guy was more than happy for me to take a picture.

A few snaps through the coach window.  Huge piles of sugar beet.

Driving through the town of Aksaray we saw this huge statue of an Aksaray Malaklisi – the largest of the Anatolian sheep dogs, also known as the Turkish mastiff or Anatolian Lion – which was used as a war dog by the Assyrians over 2,500 years ago.

I think this is purely celebrating Turkey's 100 years.

I don't know why really but the scenery reminded me of Tuscany.

Next up was a visit to an underground city, one of the many that exist in this area and more are still being discovered.  They were probably in use as early as the Bronze Age and many were used from time to time by Christians as they fled from invading Arab and Turkic hordes.  As many as 30,000 people could hide in these deep, catacomb-like structures for perhaps 3 months at a time.  

Our itinerary had us visiting Kaymakli which I looked up on Trip Advisor.  Apparently the city stretched over 8 floors, 85' below ground and had many narrow tunnels some with ceilings so low that you had to practically crawl through and it took 45 mins to navigate.  There were numerous recommendations that anyone who was  claustrophobic, prone to panic attacks, tall, fat, had a bad back, difficulty walking etc. should not go in.  So given the average age and fitness of our group I asked Göksel whether he thought it was wise, but in actual fact he'd already decided we'd visit a much smaller complex which was nearer ground level - phew.

So we stopped at Saratli and luckily we were the only people there, apart from a few women helpfully selling complete tat (the only time we've interacted with women commercially).  In recent years I've not worried so much about whether something was worth the money being asked and looked at it more as helping out local communities but try as I might I really couldn't find anything to buy from them.

The entrance was a narrow flight of about 10 steps which then opened up in this room.  Animals were also kept down here (imagine the smell!) and the holes in the wall were apparently mangers.

One of our ladies dropped her sunglasses down this grid and they were definitely gone for good! 

Some of the tunnels would have had "millstone doors" which could be rolled across to seal off an escape route.

It certainly was rather claustrophobic and after a while one of the ladies needed to go ahead of everyone as the thought of being stuck behind someone was seriously bothering her (although if anyone was going to get stuck it was her as she was definitely the largest!)

I think Göksel realised none of us were not particularly enjoying the experience and so soon we were out again, blinking in the bright sunshine.

A couple more out of focus, through the window, snaps to finish off.

Another caravanserai we passed on the motorway.

This rather made me giggle, the left side of the motorway was cordoned off and had recently been resurfaced - where else better to dry your seeds.

Potatoes

I think I mentioned earlier that quite randomly, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, complexes like this are being built.  Turkey has quite an open door policy for refugees and migrants (hence the EU's reluctance to allow it to join) so I presume these are to house the millions of people who have flooded into the country in the last 20 years or so.

They look very elegant, but given the speed of building I just hope they're well built and earthquake proof.