Things to do
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Derinkuyu Underground City
The deepest of the Cappadocian underground cities, reaching about sixty metres and holding stables, wine presses, a church and a ventilation shaft that still works. It is larger and less crowded than Kaymaklı.
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Göreme Historical National Park
The protected landscape of tuff pinnacles, painted churches and pigeon houses that carries the World Heritage listing. Its marked valleys can be walked without a guide, and the ground is loose underfoot.
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Love Valley
The valley of tall freestanding tuff columns west of Göreme, best seen from the road above it or walked from the village in about two hours. The light is worth the early start and there is no shade.
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Sultan Cave Suites
A cave hotel on the Göreme hillside whose terrace is the one the balloon photographs are taken from. Breakfast is served on it and it is booked out weeks ahead in season.
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Çavuşin
A half-abandoned village under a cliff face north of Göreme, with the ruined Church of St John the Baptist above it and the Red Valley trailhead at its edge. Walking on from here to Güllüdere is the standard route.
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Devrent Valley
A dry valley of eroded rock forms with no churches and no dwellings in it, named for the animal shapes people read in the stone. It works well as the last stop of an afternoon.
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Göreme Open Air Museum
A cluster of rock-cut monastic churches painted between the tenth and twelfth centuries, and the densest surviving Byzantine wall painting in Anatolia. The Dark Church is ticketed separately and its colour is the reason to pay.
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Kaymaklı Underground City
A city cut eight levels into the rock and used as a refuge from raids, of which four levels are open. The passages are low and narrow enough that anyone uneasy in tight spaces should think first.
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Paşabağ
The valley of multi-headed fairy chimneys near Zelve, several of them hollowed out as hermit cells. It is a short stop and it is the picture most people have of Cappadocia before arriving.
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Zelve Monastery
Three valleys of cave dwellings, churches and a rock-cut mosque that were lived in until the 1950s, when erosion made the village unsafe. The tunnels between the valleys give it a different character from Göreme.
