Afkule Monastery

Date

5th June 2006

Distance and Our Timing

7 miles for the round trip but about 5 miles of the walk is on the road to Gemiler Bay so the going was easy. We saved this for the late afternoon when it was a little cooler and the whole walk, including a good wander around the monastery, took three and a quarter hours.

Exercise Rating

Very level walking along the road but a bit of a climb to the monastery at the end.

Introduction

We read in the information package about the cliff top monastery at Afkule, meaning Tower of Hope. The 11th Century monk who discovered this remote and beautiful spot recognised that it was a perfect place to worship god and had the vision and determination to build in a remarkable spot. God knows how he accomplished the dangerous, seemingly impossible task! The views are breathatking, as is the sheer height.

The Walk

From Gunay’s garden we picked up the main road but this time passed the Ekizler supermarket to the clock square where we took the left turn towards Gemiler. It is about a mile to the next small village and even though this was road walking the scenery all around remains stunning. There is plenty of interest in the small holdings on eachside of the road. We passed a rather amusing statue that we thought must be a fish eagle with a swordfish in its claws. There are numerous small restaurants and cafes along the road with lots of big smiles from the owners hoping for our custom.

A couple of miles from Kaya Koy we found the track leading to Afkule which is at the point where the forest begins on the right hand side. We saw a couple of direction signs at this junction -one pointing to Gemiler and the other to Afkule but the latter was keeled over and lying in the ditch. A rather splendid market garden under development also marks the right turn. The next part of the walk is about half a mile of pleasant walking which brought us to the forest road head. We found the footpath quite easily - the route follows a well used marked trail. From this point we encountered the only climb on the walk, which very quickly brought us to the cliff edge and the site of the Monastery. There is a scramble down to the site.

We were concerned that this stunning monument is totally unprotected and open to all. It is very refreshing in some ways to have the freedom to visit such a site without restrictions but it would be a shame to see it spoiled. It was well worth spending some time wandering around taking in the views and the different aspects of the monastery and it really captures the imagination to visualise a lone monk with his primitive building tools constructing his tribute to his god.