Entertainment in Cappadocia is not built the way it is on the coast: there are no water parks or foam parties here, but there are evenings in cave halls. The Cappadocian Night is an open buffet with a programme of folk dances from various regions of Turkey, from the Black Sea horon to Caucasian forms; it takes place in a room cut into tuff, where the vaults and the acoustics came from nature rather than an architect.

A separate format is the whirling dervish ceremony. This is not a concert but a religious rite of the Mevlevi order, going back to the thirteenth century: to the sound of the ney and a drum, the participants turn about their own axis, one palm upturned and the other facing down. Spectators are asked not to applaud and not to shoot with flash. It lasts about an hour and is closer in spirit to a service than to a show.

By day the entertainment amounts to what happens in the valleys themselves: camel and horse rides along the nearer routes, a pottery workshop in Avanos where you can try the wheel, tastings in cellars cut into the rock. Practical notes: evening programmes include hotel transfer and finish late, towards midnight; cave halls stay cool even in July, so bring something with sleeves.