Turkiye 2023: Ozkonak Underground City and Ceramic Shop

Cappadocia is very special with its unique landscape of fairy chimneys, volcanic mountains and underground cities. I read that there are around 200 of these underground cities in Cappadocia with the largest one being nearly 445 sq km and is capable of housing around 20,000 people.

These undergound cities came about to serve as refuge, particularly for Christians, in times of conflict and religious persecutions. These cities are evidence of the ingenuity of the locals and their resilience to adapt to subterranean living.

We went to Ozkonak Underground City, which I read is smaller than the other cities. Perhaps this was chosen specifically to facilitate ease of touring, well logistically. It consists of kitchen, corridor, supply warehouse, ventilation tunnel, etc.

A visit to a family-owned ceramic shop in Avanos followed. The Omurlu Seramik still makes pottery and ceramics the old-fashioned way.

We sat to an engaging demo.

The before and after hand painting, this is the traditional Hittite wine decanter.

One of the local artisans sat through the demo with us.

The demo was followed by a visit to the workshop area where we saw artisans at work.

Now the showroom was something else. The finished products showed top notch quality craftsmanship and design. What a fun time looking at all the displays. Everything looked like museum pieces. It was heaven for me.

The blues fascinated me.

Genie bottles?

This cute resident was the official farewell committee representative.

Cappadocia, alone, is well worth the price of the whole 13-day Turkish trip.