Cappadocia to Ankara

Our first stop on the road was an underground city. There are over 300 in the area. We saw bedrooms with no doors, round entrances with circular doors (like in the Flintstones) that can be rolled into place, wells with water, open holes above for ventilation and even an elevator shaft. Apparently the porous rock absorbed smoke from cooking. They made wine in a hole in the ground. The underground cities were fairly easy to construct as the stone (some combination of volcanic remains) was easy to chip away. The cities were only used in dangerous times such as invasions by Romans from West and Arabs from East.

Further on the way we stopped at a salt lake which we walked on. It covered such a large area, up to 50km, and all you could see was white plains disappearing in the hazy distance. During the winter the lakes are about 1.6m deep with (salty) water. During the summer, most of the water evaporates and leaves the thin crust of salt.

Lunch was more pancakes.

Once we arrived in Ankara, we headed straight to the Ataturk mausoleum with his symbolic tomb. The magnificent building is constructed of marble and gold/precious stones ceilings, all sourced from Turkey. Under tomb there is a museum dedicated to Ataturk and his work.

Our final stop was the Anatolian civilisation museum which contained many items from the history of Turkey, including a large room dedicated to stone carvings. We were all tired by this stage, and the museum staff were very close to home time (and eating time), so we felt a bit pressured and couldn’t take in all the information.

Dinner was another average hotel buffet. After dinner we went to the local mall for desserts. Just after we found the food area there was a power cut. We headed for the supermarket for water and food to take home. Shortly after, the power came back on. We decided to watch The Dark Knight on large IMAX screen.