From the Edge of the Plain to the Caravan Road, from a Rock City to a Sinkhole Lake

Kilistra can be reached from Konya by two roads, and which one you choose shapes the flow of the day. According to Kültür Portalı, the first is the fifteen-kilometre Gökyurt road that branches south-east from the thirty-four-kilometre asphalt road to Hatunsaray. The second is a link of about nine kilometres that turns left at the Kayalı junction at the thirty-sixth kilometre of the Konya-Antalya highway. Since you will continue to Sille on the way back, taking the Hatunsaray road out and the Antalya road back gives you both variety and time. If you come from the Hatunsaray side you enter the site by following the old Royal Road, whose stone paving is still in place. When you leave the car, spend a few minutes walking on this paving, because that road explains better than anything why the settlement was founded here. According to Kültür Portalı, pottery found in the area shows that its history goes back to the Late Bronze Age. Kilistra's rocks are volcanic tuffs formed eleven to three million years ago, and they were chosen because they are easy to carve. Start from the flat ground in front of the main rock cluster and first look at the rock faces from a distance. These masses look like natural crags from outside, but their interiors were hollowed out into wide rooms; ministry sources write that concealment was the guiding principle of the settlement. Watch the small holes you might take for windows, because light and air were brought inside through these camouflaged slits and flue openings. In the Early Byzantine period the settlement spread over five separate rock locations, so do not stay at one point but move from cluster to cluster along the paths. Next to the dwellings, look for the traces of daily life such as cisterns, workshops, presses, fountains and tombs. The large water cistern is the most impressive structure, showing how precious water was on a dry steppe. The lookout towers and shelters on the high rocks tell you that the settlement also served as a guard post. A cross-plan chapel carved into one of the rocks is the best-known carved structure on the site; you can look at it as an example of rock-cut architecture and move on. Lower your head as you enter the rock rooms, because thresholds are low and floors are uneven. Remember that some cavities are still used by the people of Gökyurt as food stores, and do not enter a room whose door is closed. In past years some visitors caused outrage by writing on the walls with spray paint; tuff is a stone that wears easily, so do not touch the walls and leave no trace. The best photographic angle is a wide frame from the open ground opposite the main cluster that takes in the rock faces as a whole. Because the morning sun strikes from the east, the shadows of the cavities deepen and the texture of the rock looks far sharper than at noon. There is very little shade on site, so do not leave your water in the car. The area passed under Turkish rule after the eleventh century and joined the Ottoman lands in 1466; keep this long chain of settlement in mind as you walk through the rock rooms. When you have finished, take the Kayalı junction to the Antalya road, return to Konya and head for Sille on the north-western edge of the city.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Kilistra (Lystra); NTV (AA), Kilistra Antik Kenti; CNN Türk, Konya'nın peribacaları Kilistra; Wikipedia, Kilistra.

Sille lies about seven kilometres from the city centre and is easily reached by municipal bus, minibus or car. Crossing the city north-westwards on your way back from Kilistra, you know you are near the mouth of the valley when the road suddenly narrows. It is best to leave the car at the entrance to the settlement and explore Sille on foot, because its value lies not in a single building but in the whole of its streets and slopes. The settlement is built on both sides of a deep, narrow valley that Sille Stream splits in two as it flows from north to south. The valley floor lies about one thousand one hundred and fifteen metres above sea level and is ringed by the hills of Küçük Gevele and Büyük Gevele. The origin of the name is debated; one view links it to Silenus of Greek mythology, another to Sylla, meaning water nymphs. First walk along the stream and watch the two slopes face each other; this is where you best see how the houses lean against the rock and against one another. The old bridges over the stream link the two banks and give the best standing points for a photograph of the valley. Look closely at the stone in the house walls; Sille stone, a local volcanic stone with andesite properties, resists high heat and was used for building kilns and as a building stone in many of Konya's old buildings. According to Wikipedia this stone was once quarried at twenty-seven pits, but today production continues at only a few of them. Look for the Hacı Ali Ağa Bathhouse, built in 1884 in the market area; with its women's and men's sections, its water tank and its Ottoman Turkish inscription, it was restored after being largely ruined. After the bathhouse, enter the narrow streets climbing the slopes and study the facades of the traditional Sille houses that keep the historic atmosphere of the area alive. The roughly forty caves carved into the hills on the southern slope are rock-cut structures that Kültür Portalı counts among Sille's most important historic assets; you can count them while looking from the stream bank. Until the 1920s Sille was a multicultural settlement where different communities lived together, and its fabric changed after the population exchange of 1924; as you walk the streets, remember that you are in a place marked by this long shared life. According to the sources, Sille's population reached eighteen thousand before the Republic, and in the records of 1907 it consisted of thirteen neighbourhoods. Today Sille is administered as two neighbourhoods of Selçuklu district, named Subaşı and Ak. Its declaration as an urban conservation area in 2001 ensured that the unity you see today was preserved. Sille is also a place of crafts; pottery, candle making and carpets woven with root dyes obtained from the buckthorn plant are known by the name of the area. The number of carpet looms was once counted in hundreds, but only a few remain today, so if you come across an open workshop it is worth watching for a short while. Then walk, or drive a short way, to the northern end of the valley and see the lake of Sille Dam. The earth-fill dam, built by the State Hydraulic Works between 1953 and 1960 for irrigation and flood control, rises thirty-nine metres above the stream bed. Looking down the valley from the top of the dam, you see in one glance the slopes of Küçük Gevele, also known as Takkeli Dağ, and how tightly the settlement is squeezed into the valley. Having lunch in Sille suits the rhythm of the route best, because food options are limited at the next two stops. On the way out, cross the city centre eastwards and take the Aksaray road; the next stop is Zazadin Han on that road.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Sille; Konya Valiliği, Sille; NTV (AA), Konya'da 5000 yıllık tarihi Sille; Wikipedia, Sille ve Sille Barajı.

Zazadin Han lies about twenty-two kilometres from Konya, some five kilometres off the Aksaray road, near the village of Tömek. After you leave the main road, the stone mass rising suddenly in the middle of the steppe tells you by itself what kind of landmark the inn once was for caravan drivers. When you leave the car, walk once around the building before going inside, because the most interesting part of this inn is its outer walls. The polygonal, square and cylindrical buttresses and the corner towers set against the facades give the building the look of a fortress. Look closely at the wall stones; the text of the Konya Governorship draws attention to the large number of reused stones and to the density of mason's marks in the walls. Researchers from Selçuk University say that some of these stones come from Roman and Byzantine remains, which is why you see stones of different sizes and workmanship side by side in the walls. Then come to the portal on the south facade and study how the two-coloured stones are laid in alternating courses. Notice the small rope-twisted colonnettes on either side of the door and their dice-shaped capitals. Passing through the portal you reach the courtyard through an entrance iwan with a low vault; the south, east and north sides of the courtyard are surrounded by arcaded galleries and rooms. The sources mention twenty-four open-fronted and closed rooms in the courtyard, as well as bath, granary, storage and stable sections. Above the entrance iwan, reached by the stone staircase in the south-west corner of the courtyard, is a small star-vaulted masjid room; look at it as part of the inn's architectural programme. The stone staircase in the north wing of the courtyard leads to the roof; if the roof is open, do not miss the chance to see the steppe from above. Then head for the portal of the covered hall on the west; this is the part used for winter lodging, stretching like a hall with its piers and vaults. Inside you see that the central nave is wider and higher than the side aisles, and that the square space at its centre is covered by a dome on squinches. Because the top of the dome was closed with a transparent drum and cone during repairs, the interior is brighter than you might expect. Try to find the two inscriptions above the doors; according to them the covered hall was completed in 1235-1236 and the courtyard in 1236-1237 by the vizier Sadeddin Köpek. According to the Governorship's text, Sadeddin Köpek, who was also known as a painter-decorator and architect, may well have been the inn's architect himself. TRT Haber presents the building as the largest caravanserai the Anatolian Seljuk State built in Konya. The inn's original name was Sadeddin Han, which over time became Zazadin in popular speech. Excavations in 1996 found hexagonal floor bricks in the covered hall, while it is disputed whether the tile fragments belong to the building. Long left in ruins, the building reached its present state with the restoration by Selçuklu Municipality in 2017 and is also used as a set for various film shoots. Visiting conditions for the inn's interior change from time to time, so check the current situation on the website of the operating institution before you go. For photographs, wait for the moment when the afternoon sun lights the portal from the side; that is when the two-coloured stones stand apart best. From here return to the Aksaray road and continue east; the last stop, Kızören Sinkhole, is further along the same road.

Source: Konya Valiliği, Zazadin Hanı; TRT Haber (AA), Selçuklu'nun Konya'daki en büyük kervansarayı; Timeturk (AA), Zazadin Hanı ihtişamıyla konuklarını bekliyor; Wikipedia, Zazadin Hanı.

Kızören Sinkhole lies a few kilometres north of the Konya-Aksaray road, in the Obruk neighbourhood of Karatay district, about seventy-five kilometres from the city centre. After Zazadin the road crosses the middle of a flat plain; driving on with the karst cavities beneath this flatness in mind makes the view you are heading for more meaningful. When you leave the car, walk first not to the rim of the sinkhole but to the front of the Obruk Han just to its west. This Seljuk inn, which has no inscription and whose patron is unknown, is dated by historians to the first half of the thirteenth century and takes its name from the sinkhole beside it. The reason the inn was built here was water; for a long time the caravanserai met its water needs from this lake. Selçuk University carried out excavation and cleaning work at the inn in 1996, and in recent years the building was brought back to life by the restoration and landscaping of Karatay Municipality. Look at the inscribed stones in the inn's walls; the municipality has stated that these inscriptions were translated and carry information about life in that period. According to Showcaves, the word obruk is used for these rare karst lakes found only in the Konya region. Most of the collapse hollows on the plain are dry; Kızören matters because it is a large example that still holds its water. Then move to the viewing point on the rim of the sinkhole and, before looking down, pause for a moment to grasp the shape of the hollow. The collapse widens like a funnel at the top and drops to the water below in steep limestone walls. According to Showcaves data the elliptical sinkhole is about one hundred and eighty metres long and one hundred and fifty metres wide, and the water reaches a depth of one hundred and forty-five metres; since Turkish Wikipedia gives larger figures, treat these numbers as approximate. Today the water surface lies more than twenty metres below the level of the plain, and that gap is not only a natural formation. Excessive pumping of groundwater for irrigation has lowered the lake, and it was found that the level fell by about ten metres between 1996 and 2006. For this reason agricultural and domestic water extraction from the lake has been stopped. The lake also shows level differences of up to five metres over the year. According to the geologist Fetullah Arık, in the area stretching south of Kızören towards Karapınar there are many new sinkholes formed in recent years alongside the old ones. Take a long look at the surface of the water; according to Wikipedia, no living creature has been found in this deep, groundwater-fed lake. The lake and an area of one hundred and twenty-seven hectares around it were listed in 2006 as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. The Ramsar record describes this freshwater lake in the middle of the dry steppe as the region's only freshwater source and notes that nine globally threatened plant species live in the area. Never approach unfenced points on the rim of the sinkhole; the edges can be slippery and crumbly, and keep children by the hand. The most beautiful light for photographs comes close to sunset, when the sun sinks in the west, the far wall turns red and the surface of the water shines. Walk from one side of the lake to the other and look from different angles, because the depth of the hollow only becomes clear as you move. This is the last stop of the day; taking the Aksaray road back to Konya before dark is safer than driving on unlit rural roads.

Source: Showcaves, Kızören Gölü; Ramsar Sites Information Service, Kizören Obrouk; Timeturk (AA), Obruk gölü manzaralı 800 yıllık han; Memurlar.net (AA), Obruk Han; Wikipedia, Kızören Gölü.