What you can do in Cappadocia, Turkey !

Published in

wanderowls

6 min readMay 16, 2017

Cappadocia, one of the most amazing and unique cities in Turkey. Many people may not know about it or may never been heard of it. But, let me assure you this places really needs to be added in your bucket list if its not there yet.

With beautiful landscapes, fairy chimneys, under ground cities and flying at 3000ft in hot air balloons over lava-sculpted topography will surely leave you breathless. If you are a fan of travelling to unique places and capture unique experiences, this place can’t let you down !

The best time to visit Cappadocia is in Spring (April-June) and Autumn (September-November), Summer (July-August) can get pretty hot.

VISA

Now you can get e-visa to visit Turkey. Just visit to www.evisa.gov.tr and apply.

Below are the amazing places to visit in this beautiful city.

Underground Cities:

Derinkuyu

Ever thought of underground cities and how it looks like ? Derinkuyu has multi level underground city approx 85m deep and where once lived over 20,000 people including livestock and entire food supplies !

Derinkuyu, which is situated 40km from Goreme (30 minute drive) in Nevşehir Province, thought to have been created during the Byzantine era in 780–1180AD. There are about 600 outside doors to the city, hidden in the courtyards of surface dwellings. It contains all the usual rooms found in an underground city (stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, churches, wineries etc.). The hidden community, in the region of Cappadocia, is connected to other subterranean cities by tunnels stretching several miles.

And Guess what, Derinkuyu isn’t the only one of its kind, there are many underground cities in Turkey !

Kaymakli Underground City

In 1963, a Turkish man uncovered an underground city after knocking down a wall in his home. Kaymakli Underground City is 19 km from the centre of Nevsehir and since opening to tourists in 1964 has received hundreds of visitors every week. It is estimated to have housed more than 3000 people, it was mainly used during Byzantine times for protection from invading Arabs, and some historians’ suspect Kaymakli was connected to the bigger underground city of Derinkuyu through a network of tunnels.

Well, a must visit experience !

Kaymakli-Underground-City-Nevsehir-Turkey-min

Goreme National Park

Goreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. Along with its spectacular landscape it also contains rock-hewn sanctuaries that provide unique evidence of Byzantine art in the post-Iconoclastic period. Located in the volcanic zone of Hasan Mountain and Erciyes Mountain is formed of plateaus, plains, small mountain plants, high hills, alluvial stream and river valleys, drainage deltas and eroded steep valleys and high flat areas. The defining features of Goreme Historical National Park are unusual rock formations known as “fairy chimneys.”

Cappadocia Balloon Tour

Must do activity while your visit in Cappadocia, Its not cheap but you need to forget about money this time. You cant get that amazing landscape view anywhere else in the world. The tour begins every day at sunrise takes almost an hour but if you want to join deluxe balloon tour it takes 1.30 hour. Deep canyons, valleys and fairy chimneys from the air.. Cappadocia is real beauty from up there !

Goreme Open Air Museum

It is One of Turkey’s Unesco World Heritage Sites, the museum resembles a vast monastic complex composed of scores of refectory monasteries placed side-by-side. The connection between the floors of the monastery is provided with tunnel and tunnel entrance are closed with sliding stones like underground cities of Cappadocia.

Devrent Valley

A place where you need to use your imagination and find what sculptures the rocks forms. Only 10 min drive from Goreme, It is also known as Imaginary Valley and also as Pink Valley. The small fairy chimneys in the valley form a lunar landscape, or moonscape, by their strange look. It is a great place to wander for an hour or two among the captivating fairy chimneys and spot a range of animal shapes.

Zelve open air museum

It once housed one of the largest communities in the region is an amazing cave town, honeycombed with dwellings, religious and secular chambers. The open air museum is the natural rock cuts in the mountains some of which resemble like characters of history Zelve is situated about 10 km out from Goreme and is one of the oldest and most complex monastic centers of Cappadocia.

Avanos

Avanos is a town in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, famous for Avanos Pottery. Avanos has 3 reasons for you to visit, Pottery workshops, the Red river and a strange hair museum by Chez Galip.

Pasabag (Monks Valley)

Paşabağ has some of the most striking fairy chimneys in Cappadocia with twin and even triple rock caps. Located on the road to Zelve, Highly remarkable earth pillars can be seen here. Currently, there is a vineyard and a number of tuff cones standing right next to the road.

Visiting Paşabağ will only take you about a half hour so consider combining it with visiting the Zelve Open Air Museum, Devrent Valley, and Avanos and you have a full day of wonderful sightseeing in Cappadocia!

Goreme: Red/Rose Valley

One of the nicest and most most beautiful places to go walking in Cappadocia in in Red and Rose Valley . The two valleys are next to each other and are easily. Start at Sunset point (near Ortahisar) and hike down through first Red Valley and then continue on the Rose Valley.

Uçhisar

Situated at the highest point in Cappadocia, only 5 km from Goreme. The top of the Uchisar Castle, provides a magnificent panorama of the surrounding area with Mount Erciyes in the distance. A serene view from there !