Number Of Tourists Visiting Ihlara Valley Increases By 90 Percent

AKSARAY - The number of Turkish and foreign tourists visiting Ihlara Valley in central province of Aksaray in January of 2004, increased by 90 percent over to the same period last year.
Aksuray Museum Curator Yucel Kiper told the A.A correspondent on Sunday, ''number of tourists visiting the Ihlara Valley increased ninety percent to two thousand in January of 2004. There were eight hundred foreign tourists among them. In January of 2003, one thousand fifty tourists including four hundred foreigners visited the valley.''
The Ihlara Valley is 16 km long and both sides of gorge are lined with rock carved churches, about 100 in all. Early Christians constructed their rock houses and temples by carving the tufes in the valley through the valley runs the Melendiz River.
(UK-MS) 22.02.2004