The origins of this unusual site can be traced back to the Tertiary period about 50 million years ago, when craters and volcanoes dominated the landscape. Since then, a huge amount of ash and lava has flowed out of their bowels and froze, turning into soft tuff. The forces of erosion have shaped an incredible and unique landscape. For hundreds of years, people have been creating dwellings, monasteries, churches and underground cities from malleable rock.
General information
Cappadocia is a unique region of Turkey. It especially impresses with its "lunar landscape" around the cities of Urgup, Uchisar, Avanos, Mustafapasa and Goreme, where erosion has formed caves, crevices, peaks, towers and bizarre folds in the volcanic stone.
The ideal place to stay and start sightseeing is Göreme (Turkey). How to get to it - any local resident will tell you. It is easy to get here by bus from different parts of the country - Istanbul, Izmir, Ephesus, Pamukkale or Ankara.
The city is a favoritea tourist base for many travelers due to its excellent selection of hotels, inns and guesthouses, as well as its proximity to the National Park.
In addition, here you can book very popular hot air balloon tours, where you can see all the splendor of this region from a bird's eye view.
Public transport is not suitable for sightseeing, so you can rent a car and go wherever you want. If not, there are plenty of good tours around the region.
Hotels and restaurants
Yurgup used to be the tourist hub of Cappadocia, but a few decades ago budget travelers discovered the town of Avcılar, nestled in a valley just 1.5 km from the open-air museum. Avcilar has been renamed Goreme in Turkey.
Comfortable hotels were built here, good restaurants opened, and now the tourism center has been moved here. Any traveler has a wide choice of places to stay, including real cave hotels and familiar buildings with luxury or budget rooms. In the height of summer, you need to book your accommodation in advance, because the city fills up with guests from all over the world.
Most restaurants and cafes cannot boast of cleanliness and quality of service, therefore, if you decide to have a bite to eat in one of the establishments, carefully monitor what they bring to you so as not to lie in bed for the whole rest.
Most Popular Destinations
While downtown Goreme(Turkey) there are no attractions, the surrounding areas abound with interesting places.
- Green tour. You will go to Derinkuyu - one of the best preserved underground cities of Cappadocia, you will see unique rooms where people lived many centuries ago. You will be shown more than a hundred churches and monasteries carved into the rocks, including Selime, where one of the parts of the Star Wars movie epic was filmed.
- Red tour. You will be offered to go to the Valley of the Monks, where Christian hermits built churches, to Avanos - the center of ceramics production of the entire region and to the open-air museum. Byzantine cave churches with unique wall paintings, frescoes and portraits of the holy people of Cappadocia and Turkey have been preserved there. Goreme will show you the remains of a beautiful and once great culture of the ancient world.
- Blue tour. You will visit the beautiful and mysterious valleys - Pink and Red, admire the rock castle and cave settlements where people lived until the 20th century. Then you will be taken to the underground city of Kaymakli - the largest in Goreme and Turkey, where you will see stables, cellars, storage rooms and wineries, visit Pigeon Valley, old abandoned caves and Uchisar Greek houses.
Private tours
Fairy chimneys in the Valley of Love. These towers with pointed peaks can be found a 15-minute walk from Göreme in Turkey, in the Valley of Love. Having been there, you can understand why the locals gave it such a name.
Uchisar Castle. It is a giant rockwhich resembles Swiss cheese with holes made in it. You can walk freely here and explore the caves. The castle is about 45 minutes walk from Goreme. If you don't want to walk, you can take a bus that will take you there in 6-8 minutes.
Derinkuyu underground city. Cappadocia has several underground cities, but Derinkuyu is the largest of them. Seven levels were found in it, in which the first Christians lived and hid from the persecution of Roman soldiers.
Dream, travel, come to Göreme, Turkey to enjoy this place and keep it in your heart forever!
