Cappadocia is a large historical area in the heart of Turkey. However, usually when tourists talk about Cappadocia, they only mean the area around the town of Goreme, which is visited by more than 2.5 million tourists a year.
This territory is characterized by an extremely interesting volcanic landscape, underground cities, created in 1 millennium BC and extensive cave monasteries, leading its history since the days of the early Christians. But the most interesting object for tourists are famous stone pillars, which are shown in all brochures.
Due to the volcanic activity millions of years ago the territory was covered with tuffs and other geological formations. Then began a long period of weathering which created interesting natural formations known as stone pillars.
Detailed map of the area around Goreme, where you can see the location of the open air museum (Open air museum), as well as walking trails.
And here is another interesting map http://www.mapofcappadocia.com. To visit places around Goreme, you don’t even need a car, you can walk on foot. All trails can be found in maps.me, download the app and go ahead.
The main tourist town in the region. If you come overnight, then most likely you will spend the night here. There are several features to be aware of. Most hotels are located in caves. Residents took the old cave houses and converted them into hotels.
Therefore, there is very little parking space and in many hotels there is no Internet, as it does not reach the caves. We stayed at the Tekkaya Cave Hotel (booking.com). It has a couple of places for a car and a great internet connection, as each room has its own router. On the roof there is an open terrace which is used to watch the balloons in the morning. View of the town from the hotel.
If your hotel has no terrace it's not a problem. Goreme is surrounded by hills, you just need to climb one of them. The most popular one is here N 38 38.489 E 34 49.932 and is called Sunset view. Actually, we came here at sunset.
Goreme is a town of hotels and restaurants. We had dinner in the traditional Turkish restaurant Anatolian Kitchen (N 38 38.578 E 34 49.778). If you want to try something unusual, then take Kebab in a clay pot. Prices are not very high, for a normal dinner for two we paid about $17. Perhaps this is due to the fall of the lira in 2018.
The nearest tourist town to Goreme, parking in the center N 38 37.685 E 34 48.204. You can reach it on foot, there will be many beautiful viewpoints on the way.
The main interest is the ancient rock fortress. It was built by the Hittites, though it is not known for certain, since they disappeared in 1178 BC. The fortress can be visited and it offers the best views of the region from the top. Thanks to the location the defenders could easily exchange the light signals.
The second one on the other side of the Pigeon Valley N 38 37.514 E 34 48.485, can be reached by car. By the way, you can walk in the valley and there really are a lot of pigeons. You can go down to the valley and climb from the other side to this lookout.
And one more evening lookout, on the other side of the fortress N 38 37.898 E 34 48.113. It can be reached both from the town itself and from the parking lot below N 38 37.995 E 34 48.165.
Goreme National Park - this open-air museum, which is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage. It is located one kilometer from the village of Goreme.
From VI to the end of the IX century Goreme was one of the largest Christian centers. There were about 400 churches in the surroundings. Of course, these churches are not similar to ours, they are located inside rocks. The main object and a landmark is a monastery.
We took a taxi and asked to take us to the beginning of the valley N 38 39.806 E 34 49.785. From there we walked along a 4 km long trail. From above the valley looks like this.
Considered a good place to meet the sunset, there is a restaurant and a good viewpoint. You can also walk among the beautiful reliefs formed on the slopes of the Aktepe mountain. They are mostly reddish, hence the name. In our photo this is not visible, since we stopped here in the morning.
Another valley with stone pillars, popular with package tourists. A little further, on the same road, there is the Zelve Open Air Museum, but we did not get there.
Getting there: The nearest airports are in Kayseri and Nevsehir, where fly Turkish Airlines, Onur Air, Pegasus and SunExpress. The nearest bus stations can be reached from the airport only by taxi. Then continue to Goreme by bus. Buses from Nevsehir run frequently and from Kayseri rare, so you can first go to Avanos and transfer to a local bus to Goreme. Several bus companies have direct line Istanbul - Goreme: http://www.nevsehirlilerseyahat.com.tr http://www.metroturizm.com.tr http://eticket.ipektr.com/firms_68/Default.aspx
We were driving by car from Antalya and arrived in 6 hours, the road is excellent. There is a car rental in the Kayseri airport where we returned our car. The airport is paramilitary, so it looks a bit strange.
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