TURKEY Part 16 -- Days 7 & 8

After visiting the "Fairy Towers" we went to the "Valley of the Birds". It is called this because of all the pigeons that nest there. There are nest holes all over this hilly area for the pigeons. They are actually farmed here.
The farmers have build these homes with pigeon holes on top for their nests.
The birds live in the upper part and their droppings fall below. The farmers then use a door in the bottom to harvest the droppings for fertilizer.
As you can see in this picture there are hundreds of holes for these birds to live.
Also at this stop was this little stand selling various dried fruits like figs, apricots, etc. I found it interesting that the sign said what it did and a lot of the men from our group were shopping there.This is mike looking out over the valley. The landscape was simply beautiful all over Turkey.
On the 8th day we flew back to Istanbul. We then lunched in a nice restaurant over the Spice Bazaar. This is one of the oldest bazaars in the area. It sells most spices hence the name but there are some stalls selling other things. This is a picture looking down at the bazaar from the restaurant. It was one long hallway with shops on both sides.After leaving the bazaar we walked up the streets to the Grand Bazaar. The street was packed with people shopping.That evening we went to the Galata Tower to watch the sunset. This tower is in the old part of Istanbul. We had to ride the tram to get there. It was quite a fun experience. The trams were very crowded.
Here is a view from the balcony on the tower.
The sunset was absolutely beautiful. I took hundreds of pictures here are only a couple.

The next day in the afternoon we went to the airport for the return flight to Saudi Arabia. But in the morning we went back to the Grand Bazaar. This place is simply hugh. There are hundreds of shops inside with many side streets off the main one. It wasn't as crowded in the morning. Here is one of the entrances to the Bazaar.
This is the main street as we entered.
You could spend hours and probably never see the whole thing. They seem to have just about anything you can imagine. They had leather, pottery, spices, jewelry, fabric, linens, and the list goes on and on. We did make a few purchases here to bring back.

We really enjoyed 0ur trip to Turkey. We gained a real appreciation for the country. The people are hard-working and hospitable. There is so much yet to be seen we could go back again.