Things to do in Cappadocia

Cappadocia is a high plateau in central Anatolia, dry and almost treeless. Ash from three volcanoes hardened here into soft tuff. Water and wind then cut it into gorges, cones and the pinnacles called fairy chimneys.

How the rock was made

Erciyes rises 3,916 metres at the eastern edge, Hasan Dagi 3,268 at the western. Their eruptions buried the plain in ignimbrite. Tuff can be worked with a hand tool and hardens in air, which is why villages here are half underground.

The digging went deep. Derinkuyu drops about eighty-five metres and could hide thousands of people with their animals. UNESCO listed the rock sites and the Goreme valleys in 1985.

The towns and the distances between them

Nothing is far from anything else, so the base you pick changes the day only a little.

• Goreme — the cave-hotel village among the valleys, where most people sleep.
• Urgup — a proper town ten minutes east, with the wine.
• Uchisar — a hollowed crag, the highest point of the region.
• Avanos — pottery, on the Kizilirmak, the longest river in Turkey.
• Nevsehir — the provincial capital, twenty minutes west, with the airport and the coaches.
• Ihlara — a green gorge ninety kilometres southwest, over the line in Aksaray province.

Red route, green route

Two minibus circuits carve the region up, and nearly every operator sells both. The red one stays north, around Goreme, Zelve, Pasabag and Avanos. The green one goes south.

South means Derinkuyu, the Ihlara gorge and the monastery at Selime, in one long day. Off the circuits the same valleys read differently. Horses at sunset, quad bikes through the Red and Rose valleys, or your own feet.

The balloons set the calendar. They fly at sunrise and at no other hour. In spring and autumn they are gone months ahead, and so are the rooms.

Practical

• Cold. The valleys sit near 1,100 metres, so nights are cold in every month. Snow lies from December into March.
• Summer. Afternoons pass 35C with no shade in the valleys. Walk early, write off the middle of the day.
• Airports. Nevsehir Kapadokya is about 40 km from Goreme, Kayseri about 75. Hotels meet both for less than a taxi asks.
• Museum pass. Three days, covering the open-air museums, both underground cities and Ihlara.
• Money. Hotels take cards; Avanos workshops and village markets prefer lira. A tenth is the usual tip.
• Booking. April, May, September and October go first, balloons before anything else.