Interesting places in Turkey

Cappadocia (Turkish Kapadokya, is a landscape in Central Anatolia. Today, the area called Cappadocia mainly includes the provinces of Nevşehir, Niğde, Aksaray, Kırşehir and Kayseri.
If you want to introduce Cappadocia, you are faced with the dilemma: "What do I show?" Even films lasting for hours cannot do full justice to this fascinating landscape. The area is too large for that, the places, the changing landscapes and the infinite number of photo motives are simply too numerous.

One of the most famous places is Göreme with its cave churches carved out of the soft tuff. Göreme is considered the centre of Cappadocia, the unique complex of rock formations there was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1985.

Zelve (also Eski Zelve, in english Old-Zelve) is an almost entirely cave-like village and has been an open-air museum since 1967. Zelve was probably already settled in Roman times and served in the course of time also Byzantines, Seljuks, Ottomans, Greeks and Turks as accommodation. Only in 1953, after more and more of the caves collapsed due to earthquakes and erosion, the last inhabitants were resettled in a newly built village with the name Yeni Zelve (Neu-Zelve, today Aktepe).

The most famous of these are Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu, which have been uncovered by archaeologists since the 1960s. Other well known towns are Ürgüp and the pottery town Avanos.
Cappadocia was on the famous Silk Road. The people living there were often attacked by many different aggressors. That is why the inhabitants have hollowed out the soft tuff to hide in. Entire underground cities emerged, which can still be seen today. Derinkuyu is just one of them.

The 60 m high castle rock of the village Uçhisar is visible from afar as it is located on the highest inhabited plateau in the area around Göreme.
This rock is crossed by today mostly inaccessible rooms and corridors. From its top you have a breathtaking view of the whole area over Göreme to Avanos. From Uçhisar you can hike through the Güverçin Vadisi (Pigeon Valley) to Göreme to the northeast in just under two hours.

The village of Ortahisar, like Uçhisar, is built around the rock that was tunnelled and made habitable in Cappadocia's eventful past. The original settlement was located inside the rock massif and was cleverly camouflaged in times of danger. It is said that a few years ago a thousand meter long tunnel was discovered connecting the "castle" with the river flowing in the valley, so that the inhabitants were able to supply themselves with fresh water without being noticed by the enemies.

The city of Avanos is located in Cappadocia at about 920 meters above sea level on Kızılırmak (Red River), Turkey's longest river with 915 km.
The history of the city probably goes back to Hittite times. Today Avanos is known for its numerous traditional potteries and brickworks. The inhabitants live primarily from tourism. In the town there are large hotels, local pottery shops, guesthouses, carpet dealers, bars and restaurants as well as entertainment facilities for three-day tourism. Six kilometres east of the city lies the Seljuk caravansary Sarıhan

The caravanserai Sarıhan, 5 km east of the city of Avanos, was a more or less dilapidated ruin until the end of the 90s. Built with private funds and lovingly restored, it now serves as a restaurant and venue for cultural events. In the evenings dancing dervishes show the interested tourists their dance, according to their needs. The caravanserai was built by the Seljuks in 1249 and 1254 and, like most caravanserais, is a fortress. The special thing about Sarı Han is that she has kept her isolated location without settling around it.

The Ihlara Gorge, also called Ihlara Valley or Peristrema Valley (Turkish: Ihlara Vadisi) is a 15 km long and up to 150 m deep gorge in southwest Cappadocia. In the valley there are about 50 rock churches and numerous cave buildings.

The gorge is a crack in the earth's crust into which the Melendiz Su river has burrowed. It lies between the villages of Ihlara in the southeast and Selime in the northwest. At the northern end of Ihlara a staircase with almost 400 steps leads over 100 m deep into the gorge.

Since the 7th century, the valley was the settlement area of Byzantine monks who dug their dwellings and churches into the tuff rock created by the eruptions of Hasan Dağı. The former Greek name Peristrema ("winding around") of the village Belisarma, which lies about halfway between Ihlara and Selime, gave its name to the valley.

A balloon ride over the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia is one of the highlights of a visit to Cappadocia.
Get up early, 5:00 am pick up from the hotel, not everyone's cup of tea, but for those who want to experience something special, a unique experience.

Cappadocia can be reached from Antalya/Alanya via the national road D695 / D696 to Konya and from there via the D300 to Aksaray and on towards Nevsehir.