The visual feast of nature; Üzengi Valley
If you keep going through the alleyway after passing the Karakuş facilities through the Mustafapaşa Road at the west of Ürgüp, after a while you can reach Üzengi Stream which runs in parallel to the valley and where the water level isn’t so high. The valley also has an entrance from the direction of Ortahisar.
On this stream, there are three springs that are the source of natural mineral water; we saw two of them and took a break at first one tasting its water. The water we drank was a gaseous mineral water with iron odor. Later we learnt that people had been using the water for the treatment of digestive troubles and kidney diseases.
If you follow the narrow path on the right after Karakuş facilities from the Mustafapaşa road, which is located to the east of Ürgüp, after a while, you can reach the Üzengi Stream flowing in parallel to the valley. Its water level is not so high. The Valley has another entrance from Ortahisar side. There are three main sources from which natural mineral water springs; we saw two of these and tasted the water in the first source we saw by giving a little break. What we drank was natural mineral water with gas and an iron smell. We learned afterwards that this water was good for the treatment of digestion problems and renal disorders.
If you keep walking along the stream, you will first witness the dazzling beauty of nature, how the singing of the birds takes you deep in the valley and the trails of the lives passing here centuries ago. If you don’t walk along the stream and follow the parallel way, you can also visit the churches, which are special to Cappadocia region. It is impossible not to see the dovecots carved on the rocks in the valley, which was home to thousands of doves in the past. Survival and harvesting of the vineyards in this valley were possible with pigeon manure, which is quite valuable in agriculture.
Dovecots are closed caves with very small entry holes to prevent the destruction of doves by wild birds or their escape from the region due to being scared.
The scenery you watch from high panorama points is like a charming movie but you are not part of it. You understand that the only way of feeling the magic of Beautiful Horse Country is exploring the sense in depth. You feel that you detach yourself from the truth while moving to the depths of Üzengi Valley and you find yourself in the middle of a fairy tale world.
During your walk in the area, you will come across innumerable water channels, pits and tunnel entries. You will realize the value of a lamp, which you always keep because you will desire to look inside. Please do not use artificial light because it harms the frescos in churches.
Those, who are generally in search of something different, come up with nice discoveries as a result of their expeditions. If you are one of those in search of distinction, here is our recommended route: “Üzengi Valley” where you can feel the depth of life, time and civilizations and where nature turns into a visual feast.
This is not a scene, the spirit of millions of years are hidden in depth.
- Article from S. Rohlfs
Üzengi Valley
After a great breakfast, we took the roads again at the early hours of the day. Our first objective was Üzengi valley, which is 12 km’s from Ürgüp. We proceeded with the car in the direction of Mustafapaşa up to the entrance point of the valley. We were able to advance a few km’s over Üzengi Stream with our car. We have come up with a nice name for this activity: “Car Rafting”. A little before reaching a known spring in the region, we left our vehicle and entered the valley on foot through stream bed.
Countless number of blooming plants and chirpings by countless number of bird species accompanies us until the stone houses where the primitive men lived. These houses, which were dispersed to more than one floors, were almost completely carved into the crests. We got the impression that some of the stone houses were being used as stable or pigeonholes today, because there were a lot of cultivated fields at the lower parts of this valley. This way, we managed to find semi-wild fruit tree treasure and we ate plum, apricot and walnuts on the way. We had the opportunity to see the first vineyard fields which had a different layout than the ones we were used to. However, the grapes didn’t appear to be fully ripe. We also have to mention that we didn’t encounter any people here.