Our trip to Iznik

Our quick trip to Iznik turned out to be a nice break. Since our interpreter has been sick or to conventions for quite sometime we were climbing the walls. So we hopped a bus and went to Iznik. These two little boys followed us everywhere we went. They really wanted their picture taken. They were just darling.

This cute little old man had his sheep out on the hill for a little graze.

This gal was painting the intricate designs that they use in this region. They sell the tiles world wide and are a very prized possession. You can see some of her designs on the walls. We both picked up a couple of items to bring home.

We came across this beautiful cemetary. They bury people just a little below ground and then cover them with dirt and the walls around them. No vaults or anything in these graves.

This was inside a tomb at this cemetary.

Inside a mosque. The lines on the carpet is where the men line up to do their praying. The women pray upstairs.

Our little friends were still following us at this tomb.

It was olive harvesting time and these friendly men were very busy transporting their olives.

One of the mosiacs painted on the stairway wall of our hotel.

The hallway

The Gates of Iznik

This entire city is walled with walls this high. You can see the teenage boys coming home from school through the gates. There are four gates: North, South, East, and West. It is amazing they are still standing.

Parts of the wall

Cars drive through here. I think they live with this amazing history and are so used to it, that they don't protect it like it should be protected.

We accumulated some little friends while we were walking around. The wall on the side is actually a long aquaduct from Roman Times. There were about 6 of them following us around for about an hour.

Duard up on top trying to get a better view for a video.

Night view of one of the gates.

another view of the aquaduct.

If you look closely you can see Du at the entrance of the gate. That gives you reference for how massive these are.

Iznik - mosques and Roman Theatre

At a museum in Iznik we found this pot. They used to bury their people in clay pots. This is a side view of Du looking at it. The top picture is from the top down. You can still see the skeletons inside. These are 1000's of years old.

These little washing stations are by every mosque. Sometimes they are connected to the mosque, but this one isn't. You can see the man inside washing up before entering the mosque.

I am sitting on some stones of the remnants of a Roman Ampitheatre. Way behind me you can see where the stadium seating used to be.

A beautiful hand painted monument to the Roman Times in Iznik.

If you look closely at the minerette, the designs are very intricately laid hand painted porcelin tiles. This city is world renowned for its hand painted intricate designs. I would love to get some of them to put on a tile wall somewhere.

This is the mosque they were washing to enter.

These two pictures are of a Christian Church that is said to have healing properties inside of it. When the Arabs came, they took over the church and converted it into a mosque. There are many of the historical beautiful christian church's that have come to this same fate.

Cave Hotel

After a four hour bus ride we arrived at a town in Cappadocia called Goreme. Most of the hotels are carved out of the rocks. We walked up to our hotel and found this as the entrance to our hotel. The highest point of the hotel is where our room was. Behind the bushes on the right is an open air eating place where they had breakfast for us every morning.

It is hard to believe that our bedroom is so beautiful and completely carved out of the mountain. Even the designs on the headboard and the bed frame are what was carved. The bed just sits on the rock.

This is looking up at our room. Below is a pic of the ceiling where there is attached a flying carpet. Very cool.

The cave churches

These church are the most amazing part of Cappadocia. They were not built, but were carved out of the rocks and painted. The vaulted, painted, curved, and intricate architecture are so beautiful. Most of them were hidden. But the designs are truly outstanding. They were carved about a few hundred years after Christ's death

You can see the drawing of Christ in the top of the ceiling. It is very detailed and getting pictures of it was very difficult.
The twelve apostles.




This must have been so beautiful 2000 years ago. Can you believe it is so well preserved.

Our guide is leading us down a tunnel. We were headed down to the seventh level underground.

She would just smile. Easy to do when you only way 100 lbs and are 24. How they ever lived for months underground in these caves is beyond belief. But they did it.

This is Duard pretending he was Samuel preaching on the wall (hey, wasn't that the book of mormon)

This was a teaching room in a monastery. The benches are on the sides. The teacher would walk back and forth down the middle. There were also instruction rooms off to the sides.

(Remember this was carved out of a big rock or mountain, not build) All the walls carved.

When we came across a baptismal font, our guide said, "Do you want to baptize me?" Of course Du said yes. Too bad there was no water - we really could use more members.

Underground Cities- the Caves

This is called pigeon canyon because the whole canyon was devoted to pigeons. They made these little homes for the pigeons up on the rocks. If you look closely you will see ledges where they could stand because they would collect the poop and use it for fertilizer for their crops. Some continue to use this a bit still.

Taking a break at the end of the hike for a little water and a little rest. These people are awesome. We loved being with them. F. ElderCasey & Sister Mariln Abney; 2. Du, Sister Jenette & Elder Les Paskett; 3. Sandy

If you look at this picture closely you will see it is a diagram of the underground city we are visiting. You can see the top layer above ground and then all the tunnels and living areas under the ground. They would hide in here when attackers were present. They say there are over 300 underground cities in this area and would house about 1000 each. There are stables, kitchens, living areas, etc. Of course they have put in lights for the tourists. There water would come from below at the water table and they would bring it up, so there was no need to come above ground during stressful times. The temperature is the same year round.

We are in one of the underground rooms. From left to right there is Les Paskett, Casey Abney, Janette Paskett, guide-Aleul, and Sandy

To seal themselves in so no one could enter, they carved these massive stones that remained in the walls as they carved them. When rolled across the door entrance they were unmovable from the outer areas. It took a great of effort to roll it away when they wanted to move it. I weighs about 2 tons.


We are entering one of the downward tunnels here. The area to the right is a storage room. They also made wine in here and kept huge pottery vessels full of wine.