Nature's own artwork Cappadocia. Some trip tips.
- Snow Globe
- 21 Tem 2019
- 16 dakikada okunur
Hello again ☺
I have been dreaming of going to Cappadocia for many years but somehow I couldn't go.
Finally I got a change. Even if we chose the most popular time, we did not give up. The worst part of this,it was the road fare was expensive.
Cappadocia that have a very old history is waiting for visitors with different nature and gives you a different experience.
Journey :
There are many ways to go. Plane,tour,bus... As I typed before this season the most expensive season for Cappadocia because of this we choose bus. One way was 140 tl. Roundtrip bus fare is 280 tl for pear person. We were thre: My sister, my colleague Nurana and me.
We took bus from Dudullu/Istanbul at 10:30 p.m and we passed Nevşehir then we arrived to Göreme center with some problems at 12 o'clock.
We went to our hostel from narrow, stone streets of Göreme.
Accommodation :
My colleague Nurana came to Cappadocia 2 years ago. She was very pleased with the hostel where she stayed before. And She called them and got the discount. I payed 100 tl for 2 night.
There are 6 bed in the room. First night there were my group, an asian lady and a funny Portuguese lady. 2 th night only us were in room.
Room was clean and beautiful. Hotel owners are so helpful and kind ☺
Our hotel name is " Stay in Peace "
Breakfast is included in hostel.
We have 3 days in Cappadocia. After settling in our hotel on the first day, we got ready and started our trip without wasting time.🤗
Cappadocia :
This rocky wonderland was shaped by millions of years of natural phenomena—but human hands performed equally incredible works here.
Cappadocia region was formed 60 million years ago by erosion of soft layers of lava and ash from Mount Erciyes (Argeus), Mount Hasan and Mount Güllü composing with wind and rain over millions of years.
Erosion shaped the incredible landscape of Turkey's Göreme valley, but thousands of years ago humans took a cue from Mother Nature and began carving an incredible chamber and tunnel complex into the soft rock. Beginning in the fourth century A.D., an urbanized—but underground—cultural landscape was created here.
Ancient volcanic eruptions blanketed this region with thick ash, which solidified into a soft rock—called tuff—tens of meters thick. Wind and water went to work on this plateau, leaving only its harder elements behind to form a fairy tale landscape of cones, pillars, pinnacles, mushrooms, and chimneys, which stretch as far as 130 feet (40 meters) into the sky.
But human hands performed equally incredible works here. The rocky wonderland is honeycombed with a network of human-created caves; living quarters, places of worship, stables, and storehouses were all dug into the soft stone. In fact, tunnel complexes formed entire towns with as many as eight different stories hidden underground.
Cappadocia became a religious refuge during the early days of Christianity. By the fourth century Christians fleeing Rome’s persecution had arrived in some numbers and established monastic communities here. The monks excavated extensive dwellings and monasteries and created Byzantine frescoed paintings in cave chapels beginning in the seventh century, which endure in well-preserved isolation to this day.
The Silk Road (trade road) passes through Cappadocia. Therefore, it contains a lot of culture.
❗❗❗ Fairy chimneys are thinner 2 cm each year. You can't stop nature and erosion. So we may not see this natural wonder after 100-150 years. 😕 It may have destroyed itself over time.
So visit Cappadocia when there is time. My advice to you go without delay. 🙋♀
1 th Day Trip :
Our first stop on the first day is the Göreme Open Air Museum which is walking distance (2 km) from the center of Göreme.
If you have a museum card. You can free entrance to museums all over Turkey and admission free for Tc citizens under the age of 18.
We have a museum card and we went in without waiting for that looooong card line.
When you get in, if you follow the road, you will see all the churches and chapels in the area.
This valley has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1985.
Geometric patterned paintings in the first Christian period, was replaced by religious paintings in later periods.
Mostly the paintings that tell the stories of Jesus and the Bible are still beautiful.
There are 11 churches to visit and 18 churches that are closed to visitors.
These are:
Girls and Boys Monastery,
St. Basil's Chapel,
Elmali Church,
Saint Barbara Chapel,
Saint Catherine Chapel,
Serpentine Church,
Dark Church,
Carli Church and Tokali Church are open to visitors.
These churches are divided into two categories as ‘Columned Churches’ and ‘Serpentine Churches göre according to their architecture and periods.
Visiting hours
*April-October (Summer hours - every day)
8 a.m to 7 p.m
*November-March (Winter hours - every day)
8 a.m to 5 p.m
There are 3 pottery making workshops on the way to Göreme Open Air Museum. You can make pottery here or in Avanos. And you can find the cheapest gifts here. Like magnet is 1 tl and many gifts are 1 tl.
In front of the Göreme open-air museum, we took the minibus to Ürgüp and went to Ürgüp Wish hill (Our second station).
Bus fee is 4 tl. After a very short journey we reached our destination.
❗Don't forget to make a wish at the summit. ✌❗
After your wish you can sit and drink a Turkish tea in the cafe on the hill like us. 😄
We visited the new opened Underground House next to the Wish hill . Entry is 2 TL.
4-floor house towards the bottom in the mountain. The most beautiful feature of these stone houses Temperature is always constant. It is cold in summer and hot in winter.
We went down the hill and continued to the left, then we went to the Asmali Mansion, which was once the most famous series in Turkey.
Entry is 5 tl.
You can visit here and you can see the belongings of the players. I didn't prefer to visit here. If you are a fan of the series you should.
There is a jewelry market in front of this Mansion.Local ladies sell jewelry and something about series.
On the way of Ürgüp wish hill, there is a teacher house. We went there for lunch. It was nice place. 😊
After Lunch we visited to Ürgüp Center and took a bus to go to Paşabağı, Zelve. I would definitely recommend this place 😍😍
You can walk freely between the fairy chimneys and you can take photos without limitation.
The bus will leave you at in front of the door of the open-air museum. Admission is free. Again at the entrance you can find lots of small stalls where you can buy gifts.
We saw a lot of bride and groom while we were here. They preferred these areas for wedding photographs.👰
We had a problem after this museum.😄 This problem gave us nice memory about Cappadocia.
You can come to in front of this open-museum by bus but you must go to the highway when you want to return. to go to highway you can take taxi or by feet. And Highway is not close here.
We started to walk to highway. to get a minibus. Nurana told me " It would be nice to go hitchhiking. "
Before I did hitchhiking with my friends but I never tried myself. 😅
I would like to try my change and i raised my arm.
A little later a car stopped.😃🙃😎 The gentleman picked us up to Çavuşini.
I was so proud of myself 😄. It was not hard I thought.
Now we have 2 options. Bus or again hitchhiking.
Of course I would like to try my change again. This time The local old gentlemen picked us up to Göreme Center by his lux, big, black bus.
After this day we thought we can visit the rest of the place with hitchhiking.😉😇
And we can make more memories, we can meet with more people. 😊
We are so tired today. We walked 20 km all day. But we have last stop 🤗 We went to LOVER HILL (Aydın Kırağı) to watch sunset.
A lot of people come up the hill like us and They were waiting for the sunset moment at Sunset view point .
If you look around you, can understand why called here "lovers hill". Lovers from all over the world, hug each other and they are waiting for the romantic sunset 😄. Enviable 🙄😄
Perfect sunset view for everyone. You have to go here. For sunrise and sunset.
with this amazing sunset view, our first day is over.
2 th Day Trip :
We woke up very early in the morning to see balloons on the sky 😍 at 4:30 a.m Until when we left the hostel we saw incredible view. When we looked up, we could see the balloons 😍😍 Some are very close to you, some are far away. They fly over Göreme / Cappadocia.
You should go to Lovers' Hill or Lovers' Valley ( which is further away from Lovers' Hill) to see this view better. To see where balloons rise up and from where balloons are landing.
Even 5 a.m we were late to see balloons rise up moment. My advice to you is get up earlier than us and go up the lovers' hill or lovers' valley to see the balloons.
Cappadocia is full of luxury hotels. So I went into a luxury hotel and tried my luck to go their balcony to see balloons better. I wanted permission to watch the views from their terraces. The person working the reception said he could not let us in, forbidde then He did us a favor and let us in 🤗 We could clearly see the rising points of the balloons. This moment is definitely my favorite moment in Cappadocia. Even it worth to wake up super early. 😍😍 Then we left this luxury hotel and started to walk between street and to look up for balloons.
Turn back to hostel and tool little bit more sleep.
8.30 we woke up for tour. 9 a.m we had a breakfast in the hostel than Tour staff came to pick us up.
There are 3 options for tour. 1th Red tour (28 Euro) ( places we saw first day) 2th Green tour (30-33 euro) ( the most famous and tour we get.) 3th is Blue Tour.
" You can visit the most important places of Cappadocia with a guide with Green tour. And If you read this article, you don't need to buy tour. My advice to you is rent a ATV. And visit Cappadocia by yourself more adventurously."
With this advice visit more places, live your journey better.
We had tour 160 tl with help of hotel owner and we had museum card (it made price less).
Our guide made narrations in Turkish and English in the places we went. On tour we have 5 main point to visit. After these places they show us " gemstone factory ( jewelry shop ) and nuts store (local tastes )
* Our first stop on the tour was the Göreme panoramic point.
Here you can see a lot of places panoramically Göreme, valleys, Üçhisar castle, and many places. Here, our guide told us about the formation of Cappadocia and the living conditions.
Cappadocia is an art created by nature.
- "Important thing When choosing wine is not the vineyard, important thing is the soil on which grapes grow" according to Bloomberg website and lands of Cappadocia is very fertile for winemaking. You can see many wine House here. There’s a number of wine-tasting shops where visitors can sample the goods and in recent years wines from the region have won international awards.
Vineyards are very common in the region and the wines are very famous.
- Cappadocia has a stony structure. Outside of the stones are very hard but inside of stones is so soft. Even you can shape it by hand. The stone inside hardens rapidly when it comes into contact with air.
These subterranean settlements were made possible thanks to the pliability of the soft rock. These houses were made possible thanks to the pliability of the soft rock. Due to the structure of the region, people choose stones as houses. As hard as the outer layer.
- The region was once the heartland of the Hittite Empire and later gave rise to some of Christianity’s earliest philosophers.
- Three to four million years ago a series of volcanic eruptions shook the Central Anatolian area, forming what we now know as the Cappadocia fairies or ‘Cotton Castles’.
Cappadocia’s landscape was formed by volcanic erosion. Thick ash solidified into a soft rock, called tuff, and over time the tuff rocks eroded with wind and water, creating the iconic fairy chimneys we see today.
Cappadocia spans a distance of 5,000 kilometres and sits on an altitude of over 1,000 metres, cutting through three Anatolian provinces – Nevsehir, Keyseri and Nigde.
The name Cappadocia derives from the Persian word Katpaktukya, which means ‘the land of beautiful horses’ for in ancient times the region was known for its equine offering. Horses are still important to the locals who call Cappadocia home and they also offer an alternative mode of transport for visitors.
The Persians were collecting horses from the people as taxes.
* After that, our 2nd stop is Derinkuyu Underground City.
History’s platter is full of these unique cities that were built during the ancient era. However, one of these underground cities requires special attention. The Derinkuyu underground city in Turkey’s Nevşehir Province in Cappadocia is one of its kinds. There are 36 underground cities in Cappadocia and the deepest one is Derinkuyu underground city, while the widest is the Kaymakli Underground City. There are about 600 outside doors to the city, hidden in the courtyards of surface dwellings
The underground city of Derinkuyu is 18 stories deep and runs 60 meters below the surface.
The entire complex is big enough to house 20,000 people and is complete with storage rooms, refectories, stables, oil presses, chapels and wine presses. This subterranean city even had a missionary school.
The city has several large circular stone doors that were carefully balanced and were meant for blocking corridors during invasions. The doors can be operated only from inside and they resemble mill stones. These stone doors allowed to seal each level separately.
We know 36 underground cities but there is 150-200 underground cities in Cappadocia.
Hittites excavated the first underground city. Because to escape the war, the public has found such a solution. Wars are usually made in summer and Persians forced people to underground city.
People could stay inside for a min. 1 month and a max. 3 months. Because there was no sunlight inside, people got sick after 3 months and even if they went out, they would die of it after a while.
The first floor of the underground city was used as a kitchen and barn. Because the smoke from cooking is deadly for humans. On the first floor there were chimneys that opened out.
Another important information is that people were only cooking at night. Because didn't seem to smoke at night. Enemies could not locate the underground city.
The soldiers lived on the next floor in case the enemies find them. People lived on the other floors.
When you visit the underground city you will see pits on the ground. According to archaeologists, they are traps made for the enemy. They put hot oil or installing various traps in pits and the pits were covered with animal skin.
It's also another precaution for the enemy. the corridors are single, low and narrow. So enemies who don't know the plan of the underground city couldn't walk in easily, they won't be able to use their weapons and they would not be able to attack collectively. So it would make time to escape for people.
There are very loooooong passages connecting underground cities each other (like 36 km).
There are morgue, cruciform plan church and chapel inside.
Derinkuyu Underground CityThe 55m deep ventilation shaft was also used as a well. Not every floor was provided with water wells up to the surface in order to protect the dwellers from poisoning during raids. Derinkuyu contains at least 15,000 ventilation ducts that provide fresh air deep within the underground city.
They were collecting rainwater from the ventilation shaft.If enemies find here and put poison ın water, they have another well connected with spring water in the underground city.
After underground city. We gave a lunch break at close to Melendez river. Lunch is included to tour except drink.
Our next stop is Selime Monastery.
The end of the Ihlara valley, there is Selime Monastery. Selime is one of the places you shouldn’t leave without seeing. Selime Village, which has adorned itself with many fairy chimneys on a steep slope, also has a cathedral in the form of a basilica.
At the same time, Selime Sultan Tomb is located in this region. The mausoleum belongs to the Seljuk period and is also the owner of the name Selime Village.
It is the largest monastery of Cappadocia.
Selime is perhaps one of the most important places that accompany history. Rome, Seljuk, Hittite, Persia, Asus, Byzantium Danish and Ottoman State living in the Selime at different periods left many traces.
Another point you need to know is the first loud ceremonial monastery. The figurative frescos in the building have depictions such as Jesus’ coming to the sky, Mary and the Gospel.
The monastery was worshiped, religious education was given and lived.
It contains more than 100 structures carved in stone.
Orthodox believers lived here, unconditionally abide by every rule that would come from the Cathedral. This was a sacred place for them.
Really really interesting information for me is
Once upon a time, the Star Wars film crew wanted to shoot in the area to the right of Selime monastery. Structures attracted the attention of the team.
We don't know why, but the municipality of that time won't let it. 😕
The film crew took a picture of the region, makes a copy of the building and shoots it in different place.
If you are a fan of Star Wars you should feel that atmosphere.
From here we went to Ihlara Valley.
A canyon with a depth of approximately 100m and was formed by the Melendiz River thousands of years ago. Thanks to this Melendiz River, greenish everywhere around river. As you can see Everywhere is rock in Cappadocia. 😄
It begins at Ihlara village and ends with Selime Monastery at Selime village after making 26 bends along 14 kilometers.
You need ticket for entry. Again we have museum card.
It is believed that the valley housed more than four thousand dwellings and a hundred cave churches decorated with frescoes. Around eighty thousand people once lived in Ihlara Valley.
Ihlara Valley, CappadociaIt is very pleasant to walk through the Ihlara valley by the vineyards, poplars and pistachio trees to the soothing sound of the rushing water (Melendiz River), and surrounded by a rich wildlife of lizards, frogs, butterflies, birds and sometimes eagles and other mammals like lambs and sheep.
It is 4 km long. There are many churches in this valley. We visited first church at the entrance of the road.
The trade route passes through Cappadocia, we can see the traces of many cultures.
They painted scenes from the Bible.
On the corner we can see Evil eyes. Evil eye bead is a symbol associated with Turkish culture.
People used natural materials to paint pictures as saffron for the yellow color. People could had the goods they wanted from the trade route.
In order to draw the paintings, they painted the walls with pigeon eggs. The pictures were more durable.
Some of the other important churches of Ihlara Valley are:
Egritas Kilise (Church with Crooked Stone)
Sumbullu Kilise (Hyacinth Church)
Yilanli Kilise (Church with Snake)
Karagedik Kilise (Church with Black Collar)
Kirk Damalti Kilisesi (Church of St. George)
Bahattin Kilise (Bahattin's Granary Church)
Direkli Kilise (Pillard Church)
Ala Kilise (Mottled Church)
There are lovely tea house on the river in the valley. After a long walk, you can go there, take a break, eating something, drinking in the tree huts.
Our last stop on the trip is the Güvercinlik Valley.
We walked all day and we were too tired but still there are many places to see.
Pigeon breeding is very common in Cappadocia.They use their eggs to paint, feces as fertilizer,...
They make them houses by digging walls.
This valley famous about Pigeons. There are hundreds pigeons. You can feed them and enjoy with view.
Our last stop on tour:
After this places we visited Gemstones shop. 4 important stone : emerald, ruby, sapphire, diamond.
So our tour ended -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 😅
We were so tired.
Goodbye to the group and we left the tour car on the center of Goreme.
" 3 days is enough for Cappadocia with a busy schedule. But if you want to travel more easily and spend more time in the places you go, I suggest you go for 5 days. Because there are a lot of activities here and a lot of places to visit still. There are many places waiting to be discovered. "
After tour we went to dinner and we sat in the Nargile cafe to listen to live music.Prices are more affordable than the surrounding places. Cappadocia is really expensive city.
We need to be ready for our last day and 3 th day.
3 th day :
We wanted to wake up super early to watch balloons one more time. But we couldn't wake up 😕
Morning we had breakfast and left to hostel. But dog of Hotel Hector didn't let us go 😄 He followed us along the way. We had to go back to the hotel so that he couldn't get lost.
When we left hector in hostel, we took a walk and go to Göreme open museum. Before to get Göreme open museum on the left side of the road there is a earth road. When you follow that way you are gonna arrived to Rose Valley. Amazing view.
There is a path from here to Kızılçukur valley. Down the hill. I really love this way.😍😍 We went down the hill despite Nuranas' fear of heights with little bit problem. 😅
When down the hill you see a small cafe run by a local lady. There is trekking path in the valley.
We did not know this. If I know I would like to spend 1 day here, walking in forest, between fairy chimneys.
If you go to left or right side from it, it is a trekking path. If you go straight, you are gonna arrive Kızılçukur view point. I saw pictures. Sunset is perfect in there but .... 😅 We got lost in trekking path. We walked many hour in forest. Of course we saw many many beautiful places and we had different experiences, funny moments.😅 😅 😅 but we unfortunately could not see Kızılçukur view point. 😕 Next time I am gonna go there.
This view from Rose Valley.
When we arrived highway, our only option was to hitchhike.And it was not so hard. One car stoped for us. There was a family from Sakarya and I am from Sakarya,too.😄😄 They took us to Avanos which is different place from Göreme.
They said that " we will drop you up to your destination point" and they left us to the point where I will go. Amazing helpful people. 😊😊
Trekking path
Now we are in Avanos time and we're so starving after this getting lost stuff in valleys.
Local lunch time.
We went to Zerdali Cafe to eat famous Testi Kebabı here.
Testi Kebabı
It was delicious 😋 You should try. I don't like meat much but I really like this taste.
It was 40 tl. All food on the table was 70 tl.
After this beautiful lunch We went to see Kızılırmak (red river). Avonos is different than Göreme. Here you can see local life.
People is sitting next to river. There are shops around and there is really less tourist here. It has different atmosphere.
You can make a boat tour of Red river. Tour price 80 TL. You can make pottery in a workshop around here.
Except Kızılırmak nothing is touristy in Avanos.
Again we hitchhiked to Göreme on the way back. This time a young couple picked us up. From here to Göreme 10 min. by car. 😊😊 We were so lucky about hitchhiking in Cappadocia. 🍀
So we have done hitchhiking 4 times throughout the whole trip.
Busy three days. We walked 30 km today. It's a record. 😅 But everything worth for this. We are tired but so happy.
We found a nice cafe to watch beautiful Göremes' view one more time before leave. I would like to go up to Lovers's hill but my colleague and my sister didn't want to walk anymore :( it's okay.
One more nice trip is over. We carry alll memories in our mind. See you on next trip and good luck in life. ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️
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