Things to do
7-
Ortahisar
A working village built around a sixty-metre rock castle riddled with rooms, once used to store lemons trucked up from the coast. The castle can be climbed and the village below it still trades rather than performs.
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Güray Museum
An underground museum of Cappadocian pottery cut into the tuff at Avanos, covering Hittite work through to the present-day workshops on the Kızılırmak. The working studio is part of the visit.
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Kayakapi Premium Caves
A restored quarter of the old Ürgüp cave village, rebuilt house by house as a hotel with the original rooms and courtyards kept. It sits above the town with a view over the valley.
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Mustafapaşa
The Greek town of Sinasos until the 1923 population exchange, and the best surviving carved stone architecture in Cappadocia. The Church of Constantine and Helen and the old mansions are within a few streets of the square.
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Sarıca Church
A rock-cut church in the Kepez valley restored with private money in the 2010s, with a carved cross vault and traces of red ochre decoration. It is reached down a track and is usually empty.
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Sarıhan Caravanserai
A Seljuk caravanserai of 1249 on the old road east of Avanos, restored and standing alone in open country. The stone portal is the finest part and evening light suits it.
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Three Beauties
The three capped fairy chimneys on the Ürgüp side of the Nevşehir road, standing together above a viewing terrace. It is a ten-minute stop rather than a destination.