Cappadocia

Cappadocia (Turkish: Kapadokya) is an area within South Central Anatolia in Turkey, with a surreal landscape dotted with underground cities, cave churches and houses carved in the rocks.

Towns

• 1 Nevşehir is capital and transport hub for the region. Its castle hill is riddled with underground dwellings, and south are the underground cities of Kaymakli and Derinkuyu.
• 2 Göreme is the main tourist base, amidst a rich landscape of fairy chimneys and rock churches.
• 3 Uçhisar has pinnacles carved into castles, and a scenic canyon leads down to Göreme.
• 4 Ürgüp has more cave dwellings and rock cones.
• 5 Avanos makes pottery. The hoodoo landscape starts a few km south at Paşabağ valley.
• 6 Güzelyurt is an outlier to the southwest, where the tuff re-emerges from the plateau. The best of it is Ihlara Valley.

Understand

Ancient Cappadocia was a kingdom and later a province of the Roman Empire extending northeast across Anatolia to Sivas and southwest to Aksaray and Niğde. But what is nowadays known world-wide as Cappadocia, and described on this page, is a smaller area near Nevşehir with weird and spectacular scenery.

Between 9 and 3 million years ago, eruptions of Mount Erciyes and Mount Hasan covered the area in fine ash particles, which welded together and packed down into a deep layer of tuff. This is a soft rock that erodes easily, so it only persists in a dry climate, or if protected by overlay of harder rocks. Where it outcrops at the rim of a plateau, the rainfall and wind sculpts the tuff into domes, cones and columns; the general name for these is "hoodoos" and is applicable to formations from other soft rocks such as sandstone. Typically there's a cascade of large formations being born at the rim of the plateau, then middling columns below, then the oldest are statue- or garden-ornament-sized pieces at the bottom of the hoodoo field. The vagaries of erosion are exaggerated if they retain a cap of harder rock, twisting into "fairy chimneys", and their colours range from pink to green and yellow.

Tuff is hard enough to use as building material, especially if the only local alternatives are timber or wattle-and-daub. So it can be quarried and dressed as masonry, but it's much easier to hollow it out into dwellings, storage cellars, stables and ritual spaces; such cave castles are also easier to defend or hide from sight. In many places these linked up to create entire underground cities: 40 are known and more keep being discovered.

The Cappadocians were early adopters of Christianity, and in Acts 2 of the Bible they are named among the many peoples astonished to hear the Gospels preached in their own language, when the Apostles begin "speaking with tongues". Their cave dwellings are often attributed to flight from Roman persecution, but most were hewn out between 100 and 800 AD, and from 380 Christianity was the official Roman religion, so it was probably simple convenience for a growing population. Many caves have found modern use such as hotels.

Climate

Cappadocia
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D       37 45     3 −5       34 42     5 −3       19 46     10 −1       3.3 50     15 3       1.9 54     20 7       0 36     24 10       0 11     28 12       0 7.5     28 11       0 13     24 8       2.6 37     18 5       14 42     12 1       29 50     6 −2 Average max. and min. temperatures in °C Precipitation+Snow totals in mm
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D       1.5 1.8     38 24       1.3 1.6     41 26       0.8 1.8     50 30       0.1 2     60 38       0.1 2.1     68 44       0 1.4     76 49       0 0.4     82 53       0 0.3     82 52       0 0.5     76 46       0.1 1.5     64 40       0.6 1.7     53 33       1.1 2     42 28 Average max. and min. temperatures in °F Precipitation+Snow totals in inches

Capadocia has a semi-arid, continental climate, with hot dry summer days with chilly nights and cold snowy winters. Spring experiences the Kırkikindi thunderstorms of inland Anatolia, with heavy downpours. Fall is mild and dry, making it the best time to visit, especially in September. The climate chart is for Nevşehir, the largest city and typical of the region.

Get in

Every resort in Turkey will try to sell you a package tour to Cappadocia. If you don't have your own vehicle, that might be a good option. By car, the highways are straight and fast.

Nevşehir Kapadokya Airport (NAV ^IATA) is 30 km north of Nevşehir town and has flights from Istanbul - as many as six a day at the height of the season. Package tours from Istanbul usually arrive this way then are bussed off around the sights.

Kayseri Erkilet Airport (ASR ^IATA) is 70 km east of Göreme and also has flights from Istanbul. Kayseri has ponderously slow trains between Ankara and the far east of Turkey.

Nevşehir is the regional transport hub: buses from Istanbul run every couple of hours round the clock, taking 10 hours. From Ankara they're hourly, with the fastest taking 3 hours non-stop. From Kayseri they're hourly, taking 90 min via Avanos. Three per day run from Izmir, taking 12 hours via Konya. Three per day from Antalya take 8 hours via Konya.

Most overland travellers arrive from the north or west, so by bus you travel via Nevşehir and change onto a dolmuş - these ply frequently between all the towns. However if you come from the east via Kayseri, change instead at Avanos.

Get around

The villages are all linked by dolmuş, and these are sufficiently frequent to use for sight-seeing.

Car rental is best organised through your arrival airport, since that takes care of your onward transport. Book ahead, as regional airports such as Nevşehir have only small rental fleets.

See

Fairy Chimneys at Zelve north of Göreme

Museumpass is a pass for government-run museums. The Cappadocia version is valid for 3 days from your first museum visit and costs €65 or 2000 TL in 2024. You'll have to gallop around the area to break even on it.

• Sunrise and sunset are the best times to see the rock formations, with the slanting light colouring them and casting deep shadows. You need a bright sky: overcast conditions turn the rocks into dollops of grey porridge. If you explore at sunset, don't get caught by nightfall on unfamiliar rough ground.
• Castles here means large pinnacles carved out into extensive habitations, such as those at Uçhisar. Nevşehir has a conventional hilltop bastion that wouldn't look out of place in Spain - only in 2015 did they discover a great rabbit-warren of dwellings beneath it.
• Ottoman mansions were built above ground with the local stone, but often extended back into the hillside. Many were the homes of prosperous Greeks, until they were deported in the 1923 population exchanges.
• Tiny dwellings with doors less than 10 cm high are seen on cliff sides. These were pigeon coops, and the guano was collected for fertiliser and whitewash. The canyon between Uçhisar and Göreme is called Pigeon Valley for that reason.
• Entire underground cities: the best you can visit are Kaymakli and Derinkuyu south of Nevşehir.
• Churches: dozens and dozens above and below ground, fairly plain early on but becoming richly frescoed from the 9th century. The open air museum 1 km east of Goreme has a fine collection. An underground "crypt" is a common feature of church architecture, and the usual explanation is that it harks back to the days when Christians needed to conceal their rites, and that it was inherited from Mithras-worship and Zoroastrianism. But the cave church tradition of Cappadocia suggests another strand of heritage.

Do

Balloons launch at sunrise

• Hiking trails vary from easy strolls as if in a wacky sculpture park, to long treks through the canyons.
• Balloons launch at sunrise for the lightest winds and the best viewing of the rock formations. Typically it's a one-hour ride in a 20-person basket: Göreme has the biggest concentration of operators.

Buy

The towns all have small stores for basics, plus artisan and gift shops for carpets, kilims and pottery.

Eat and drink

Local dishes include:

• Mantı: ravioli dumpling with minced meat served with yoghurt and garlic sauce.
• Sirdan: lamb or sheep intestines grilled and served with spices and lemon.
• Testi kebap: meat and veg cooked in a clay pot sealed with bread dough. The pot is broken when serving.
• Pastirmali kuru fasulye: white beans with spiced meat.
• Wine: Cappadocia is a major wine-producing region, and some vineyards have outlet wine shops.

Sleep

Pigeon Valley between Uçhisar and Göreme

• Cave hotels are the specialty of Cappadocia. They come in various price ranges, but are comfy with all mod cons; your greatest difficulty may be finding your way between lobby and room through the bizarre rock formations. Next morning you wake up in an episode of The Flintstones and expect to find Dino snoozing on the sitting room carpet.
• Ottoman mansions are atmospheric and may have cave rooms but are mostly above ground.
• Standard modern hotels might be a safer bet if you have limited mobility.

Go next

• Aksaray is a laid-back city and hub for attractions such as Ihlara Valley or Tuz Gölü the salt lake.
• Konya the home of Sufi poet and thinker Rumi has outstanding Seljuk architecture.
• Kayseri is on the route east, and has museums, mosques and a 15th century castle.