Cappadocia – Outdoor Paradise

Hanging out in Cappadocia

Ever since I read about Cappadocia in a mountain bike magazine I’ve wanted to go. A seemingly endless trail network, stunning vistas, a history stretching millennia and some of the most hospitable people you’ll ever meet are all reasons to come and enjoy Goreme and the Cappadocia region. If you haven’t heard of the Cappadocia region don’t worry as it’s not too well publicized, at least in America or Australia. The Cappadocia region of Eastern, Turkey is famous for its rock formations called fairy chimneys and the houses and other buildings carved into these rock formations and walls. People have been living in the Cappadocia region for thousands and thousands of years with the area first being mentioned in written history during the 6^th century BC.  Although it’s believed this area was inhabited well through the Bronze Age (a long time ago) and possibly much farther back. The mostly dry region sits at about 1000 meters above sea level and is very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter.

Trying to stay warm in the sun.

We visited Goreme, the tourist center of Cappadocia and home to some of the best examples of fairy chimneys and rock carved houses anywhere. We visited mid November but the weather was still very cold, barely making it above freezing during the day and dropping to close to -10 at night. We were really surprised, as were the locals, just how cold it was during that time of the year. Thankfully we had just the right amount of layers to keep us warm during the day. The cold didn’t really stop us from doing anything, we did a big walk each of the three days we were in Cappadocia. The scenery, trail network and interesting history are all just too good to pass up, despite the weather.

Pamela scampering up a hillside.

Our hotel, located in a little town called Cavusin was about 4 kilometers from the center of Goreme and within eyesight of all the marvelous sights this place has to offer. Early mornings were spent watching the many-many hot air balloons take flight and float over our hotel and into nearby canyon areas. Although very cold in the morning it was definitely worth getting up and checking out all the balloons. Some floated just a few meters from our hotel. We didn’t take a balloon flight in Cappadocia as we wanted to save our balloon flight for Egypt. 

Watching the balloons dip in and out of the valleys from our hotel.

The sky is full of hot air balloons.

We spent our days hiking through the various valleys around the Goreme area. In one case we hiked from Goreme up to the Open Air Museum, through a slot canyon, and back to Cavusin through the Rose and Red Valleys. This took at least 4 hours but was well worth the walk as we got to explore so many ancient rock structures including houses and churches. This area of Cappadocia was very famous for it’s monasteries from the 7^th to the 12^th centuries and it’s easy to see why. The monasteries are built into the side of the rock formations, some with no apparent way to the entrance passage, others with entrances easy enough for us to explore. If going on a walk we highly recommend bringing a torch or two for exploring the ruined rock structures.

Hiking through Love Valley.

The next big hike we did was from Cavusin to Love Valley and on to Uchisar then back to Goreme and Cavusin. This five hour loop walk led us through the famous fairy chimneys of Love Valley, it’s easy to see how Love Valley got its name from the shape of the rock formations. Once through the chimneys the valley continues for many kilometers before coming out near the rock castle at Uchisar where you can pick up the main road back to Goreme or continue to another valley. Depending on your available time we’d recommend hiking the valley between Uchisar and Goreme, there are plenty of rock formations and houses to view and explore on the walk.

Lots of crawling up and down big rocks.

While in Goreme we did get a really nice treat for dinner at the Anatolian Café. The Testi Kebab is meat and vegetables cooked in a clay pot, the waiter brings over the clay pot and you break it open with a small sword, from there you can eat the mouth-watering meat (chicken,lamb,beef) right out of the clay pot. We loved the meal, definitely our best while in Goreme.

Pamela cracking open the clay pot of the testi kebab. A must try when in Goreme

Getting to Goreme is pretty easy and cheap from anywhere in Turkey. You can catch a flight to Kayseri which is about a 45 minute drive from Goreme, from Kayseri you can catch a bus or hire a car. We took overnight buses both to and from Goreme, stopping in Nevesihir which is the closest large town to Goreme at about 20 minutes away. The overnight bus back to Istanbul left Goreme at about 8pm and got into Istanbul at about 7am.

While in Cappadocia we stayed at the Anitta Cave Hotel in the small town of Cavusin. The small family run hotel offers incredible views of the surrounding area including Goreme, Love Valley and the nearby church built into a rock wall. Along with the views you get great hospitality and a laugh or two from the hotel staff. We’d definitely recommend staying there, just remember you’re about 4 kilometers away from the town center but the hotel manager was more than happy to drive us to the center of town if/when we needed to go.

Fun with photos

After three days we felt like we just touched the tip of the iceberg in Cappadocia, we could have easily spent another week exploring trails, renting mountain bikes or ATVs or just eating the testi kebabs. We wouldn’t hesitate to come back to this part of Turkey in the future and recommend it to anyone who loves the outdoors, great food and great hospitality.

All our pics from Cappadocia can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/CappadociaGoremeAndCavusln?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Kaymakli Underground City – Taking a Trip Four Floors Down and Many Years in the Past

Crawling through one of the unmarked tunnels.

About twenty minutes from the Cappadocia central town of Neveshir, Turkey lies a mammoth underground city called Kaymakli. Stables, kitchens, storage, churches, a winery, cemeteries and houses are just some of the things we found in the few hours we spent underground at Kaymakli. The former inhabits of these caves used them for everything but most importantly they were used to hide from would be invaders. The Cappadocia region of Turkey is literally filled with these underground cities, I read one article that stated there’s an underground city for every above ground city. Only four of these cities have been made available for tourists to visit. We heard that many locals still use underground cities, or what’s left of them, for current storage. 

Small doorways

Fifteen Turkish Lira ($8.50 USD) will get you into the underground city, if you’d like you can pick-up a guide onsite for approximately 40 Turkish Lira but we recommend reading up ahead of time and going in on your own. Going in alone and not part of an organized tour will give you the most amount of time to explore the city and it’s features. We would recommend bringing at least one torch, preferably a head torch for your visit. Long pants and a long-sleeve shirt are also a good idea as you could be crawling on the ground for a bit. 

Just happy to be in a room we can stand-up in.

It took many hundreds of years for the Kaymakli caves to be carved out and it’s hard to say how many people actually inhabited the underground city during it’s heyday but it’s believed the inhabitants were not too impoverished as there is quite a substantial area for storage of food and other goods.  While we were visiting it was a cold-cold day with snow on the ground so I can only imagine the city inhabitants were thankful for these caves in the wintertime to escape the cold and the summertime to escape the heat.

A very deep ventilation shaft. We couldn't see the bottom of it.

Once in the caves you can take a suggested path by following red arrow signs to go in and down and blue arrow signs to go up and out. All the areas marked with arrow signs are well lit with easy to follow passageways. Claustrophobics should beware though as some of the lit passages get pretty narrow and short.  We did our best to follow the red and blue arrows but also took any chance we could to explore other passageways that were not lit. Most of these passages involved turning on our torches and crawling through very small tunnels to rooms that looked like old storage areas. In one case we couldn’t go any farther down a tunnel as it got too small to turn around and we didn’t feel like crawling backwards. At one point we shut off our lights and sat quiet in the pitch black, it’s an eerie feeling to be in a place so dark and quiet. We could hear each other breathing but couldn’t see our hands in front of our own face. Definitely not for the people who are scared of the dark or of confined spaces.

One of the larger rooms on the path through the city.

Getting to Kaymakli
There are many tours that take you into this underground city but we’d recommend doing it on your own if you have some free time and don’t mind exploring a bit. From Goreme you can take a minibus to the minibus stop in Nevesihir at a cost of two Turkish Lira ($1.15 USD).  At the minibus stop catch a van to Kaymakli, the above ground city is also called Kaymakli, at a cost of three Turkish Lira ($1.75 USD). Tell the driver to Kaymakli that you want to get off at the underground city. The van will drop you at the exact right place. When finished just walk back to the main road and wait for the van that reads Kaymakli/Nevesihir and just reverse the process. You shouldn’t have to wait longer than 30 minutes at any given place. On the drive back from Kaymakli we kept wondering how many other underground cities were located just near us. We definitely would like to go back and explore more.

All our pics from Kaymakli can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/KaymakliUndergroundCityCappadocia?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave