Cappadocia
About Cappadocia
There is nowhere on earth that looks quite like Cappadocia. The volcanic eruptions of Mount Erciyes and Mount Hasan millions of years ago buried this landscape in deep layers of ash that compressed into soft rock, which wind, rain and frost then sculpted over millennia into the extraordinary valleys, fairy chimneys and cone formations that make this region one of the most photographed landscapes in the world. Beneath the surface, the story is equally extraordinary, ancient communities carved entire cities into the rock, descending eleven storeys below ground with churches, stables, ventilation shafts and living quarters hidden from the world above. On the cliff faces of the valleys, Byzantine painters covered cave churches with vivid frescoes that survived sealed inside the soft tuff for centuries while stone buildings across the rest of the world crumbled around them. Above it all, hot air balloons drift at sunrise over a landscape that seems to belong to another planet entirely. Cappadocia is not simply a destination. It is an experience that changes the way you think about what a landscape can be.
Overview
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Region
Nevşehir, Central Anatolia
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Population
~ 320.000
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Elevation
1,000m to 3,916m (Mount Erciyes)
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Climate
Continental
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Best Time to Visit
April to November
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Nearest Airport
Kayseri Erkilet Airport (80 km)
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Known For
Fairy Chimneys, Underground Cities, Hot Air Balloons, Byzantine Cave Churches, Göreme Open Air Museum
Location
Things To Do in Cappadocia;
1 Rise Above the Valleys at Sunrise
The hot air balloon flights over Cappadocia are among the most celebrated sunrise experiences in the world, and the reputation is entirely justified. Launching in the first light of dawn, the balloons drift silently over the fairy chimney valleys, the cave churches and the extraordinary rock formations of Göreme, Devrent and Imagination Valley, revealing the full geometry of the landscape from an altitude that no viewpoint or hiking trail can replicate. On a clear morning, with dozens of balloons in the air simultaneously and the light turning the rock formations from grey to gold, the experience produces the kind of silence that tends to fall over a basket full of people who were talking enthusiastically moments before. The flights last approximately one hour and conclude with the champagne toast tradition that dates back to the earliest days of ballooning in 18th century France.
2 Go Underground
The underground cities of Cappadocia are among the most remarkable feats of human engineering in the ancient world, carved entirely by hand into the soft volcanic rock over thousands of years. Derinkuyu, the deepest and most extensive of the known underground cities, descends eleven storeys below the surface and could shelter up to twenty thousand people in times of danger, with ventilation shafts, water wells, a church, a school and livestock stables connected by narrow tunnels throughout. The cities were used by early Christian communities to hide from persecution and later by Byzantine populations seeking refuge from Arab raids. Walking through the tunnels today, with the carved rooms and passageways extending in every direction around you, the scale of what was built here by hand and in secret is genuinely difficult to comprehend.
3 Walk the Valleys
The valleys of Cappadocia reward walking in a way that few landscapes in the world can match. Pigeon Valley, named for the thousands of dovecotes carved into its rock faces by farmers over many centuries, connects Göreme to Uçhisar Castle with a trail that passes through some of the most concentrated fairy chimney formations in the region. Love Valley, with its unusually shaped rock columns rising from the valley floor, is best seen in the late afternoon when the low light catches the texture of the tuff and the shadows deepen between the formations. Devrent Valley, known locally as Imagination Valley, contains rock formations so abstract in their shapes that finding animal and human figures within them becomes an involuntary and entirely absorbing activity. Rose Valley changes colour as the day progresses, shifting from pale cream in the morning through pink to a deep terracotta red at sunset, making the timing of your visit a decision worth thinking about in advance.
