Zengibar Yolu walking: Ulupınar to Bolay Yaylası

where we visit the ancient cities of Isaura and Astra

This four-day walking tour was more about mountain scenery and socializing than archaeological sites. I forget now how we learned about this tour. Ferda and I don’t follow this stuff closely, but Ahmet does so he probably told us about it. The Konya Büyükşehir Belediyesi among others sponsored the trip with the goal, I guess, of promoting tourism in Konya, specifically in Bozkır, Hadim, and Taşkent ilçeleri which don’t get a lot of tourists. I had been before to Bozkır on my bicycle and imagined that Hadim and Taşkent would have beautiful mountains as well. Indeed they do.

The great thing about the tour was that they provided transportation to and from Konya at the beginning and end of the trip, three meals/day, and transportation of a large backpack (with camping gear, etc.) each day all for an extraordinarily reasonable fee. The thing not to like was that it was crowded, they herded us around and took lots of photos and videos for promotional materials. It was wonderful to see this area for the first time, meet some new people, and spend time with Gülizar and Ahmet.

In the morning of the first day of walking we came to the spread-out (over about a km) ancient city of Isaura (aka Leontopolis or Isaura Nova or Isaura Nea or Isaura Palaea or Isauria or Zengibar Kalesi). On this tour we were joined by the archeologist Prof. Dr. Osman Doğanay from Aksaray Üniversitesi. That’s great ’cause he explained a bit about what we were seeing. Here he is, giving his first mini lecture.

What we’re seeing there is from Roman and Byzantine times. The professor must have said more than that, but that’s all I’m finding in my notes…

The most rain we had on the four-day trip was that afternoon when by pure luck we happened to be stopped for lunch at a place with some covered areas for resting. We took shelter during the hardest of the rain.

We saw lots of plants that reminded Ferda and me of crown of thorns starfish.

The first and second campsites were in nice, flat grassy areas surrounded by low hills and rocks. Here we’re leaving the first campsite in the morning.

Lunch on day two was near the ancient city of Astra on the top of a small hill above a cluster of houses.

Our professor confirmed that all the dig holes around the site are from modern (illegal) treasure hunters.

The organization had evening music planned at both these fun campsites. Unfortunately it rained both evenings.

Here are a couple of our fearless leaders.

We crossed a number of historic bridges.

I guess those bridges were all on the third day.

Afşar Tepecik Mahallesi sits next to the dam of a large reservoir, but it’s hard to say the setting isn’t pretty.

For camping that night we were stuffed into the school grounds. Seems like there must have been a better place.

Lunch the final day was in the village of Bolay.

Anyone who had to be in Konya before midnight that night had to leave on the bus from Bolay back to Konya. Luckily Gülizar’s bus ticket out of Konya back to İzmir wasn’t till 00:30. Ahmet, Ferda, and I stayed at a hotel that night in Konya. We said goodbye to some of our new friends there in Bolay which was unfortunate because the most dramatic scenery of the trip was that afternoon between Bolay and Bolay Yaylası. Some of the area is so remote that supposedly there are still bears around.

Kâzim who we met on this trip stayed with us till the end.

Resting by herself in the trees here is an English teacher, Zehra, who like me sometimes had to get away from all the people.

Towers like this were built by the Romans to store food and keep it away from bears. We saw others in the distance, but this was the only one we got close to.

As it was getting cold late in the day and people were getting tired, we had two stream crossings without bridges.

Thanks for the fun, well-organized tour in a beautiful part of Konya.