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THE VALLEY OF GUER^Mlfi 227
more, the low cliffs were scored and pitted by ancient
chambers laid open by the rock decaying. You could
see the inner half of a gallery, fifty yards long and
four or five feet high, stretching along the cliff's face
and joining chambers which now had the appearance
of caves. There were also excavations like tunnels
which ran back from this gallery into the still solid
rock.
Where the ravine widened yet more, a broken isolated
mass of rock, fifty or sixty feet across and thirty
or more in height, stood in the midst of the open
space like a rugged island in little. It, too, was honeycombed
with passages and cells, of which some had
been exposed by weathering as in the cliffs. AVhile
I looked at this primitive dwelling something moved
in a hole close to the ground, and the head of a
chubby brown-faced child appeared. It came out as
much at home and unconscious of its surroundings
as a slum-child in an alley, but on seeing me drew
back out of sight with the startled manner and
instant movement of a wild animal.
Within a mile or so the ravine brought us to a
valley, three or four hundred yards in width at this
point, and something over a hundred feet in depth.
The bottom was level, and the enclosing cliffs of
coloured rock were weathered into flowing curves. I
had come into this celebrated valley, sometimes called
the Vallev of Guereme, about midway in its length.
Reaching it thus it opened on me suddenly, and was
a sight more singular than anything I had expected
to
find.
I came out of the ravine, and passed between
several huge cones of rock standing close together
and occupied as dwellings. They had doorways at
ground-level, and openings as windows higher up,
betokening interiors occupied by rooms and passages,
to say nothing of flights of steps.
They rose abruptly
from the level bottom of the valley, like so many
great bottles. Similar cones seemed to fill the valley
hereabouts ; and between two that stood a little