All About Amazing Cappadocia – Turkey

When I was researching for my 3-month travels around Turkey, Cappadocia quickly became one of my most-eagerly anticipated destinations.

First of all, Cappadocia is one of the world’s premiere Hot Air Ballooning locations and I’ve been dying to go balloon-ing my whole life. In fact, I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get around to it. I decided that this year in Cappadocia I was finally going balloon-ing, regardless of the cost.

During my research I also learned about Cappadocia’s astounding landscapes, which are actually one of the things that makes hot air ballooning there so sensational.

The region is studded with crazy rock spires of all shapes & sizes, narrow canyons lined by walls of colorful rock cliffs, thousands of historic cave dwellings, dozens of UNESCO World Heritage cave churches & monasteries and… cave hotels!

So I was super-stoked to get my butt to Cappadocia, not only to fulfill one of my life-long dreams of gliding above the Earth in a balloon, but to explore the stunning natural topography.

After exploring Istanbul for one month in February, 2020, I took a quick 1-hour flight eastward to Cappadocia. I stayed for 10 days, immersed in the beautiful landscapes, sleeping in a cave room, hiking through several spectacular canyons and even joining a day-tour so I could visit some hard-to-reach attractions.

And, of course, I went hot air ballooning! I wrote about that experience here.

My hot air balloon ride was even more wonderful than I’d imagined and so were the canyons, rock formations and other cool places I visited.

So my 10-day stay in Cappadocia is something that will stay in my mind a very long time. In fact, I would really love to go back and hang out there again.

I can recommend Cappadocia enthusiastically to everyone who likes the great outdoors, adventure and taking to the sky. The region also has a very long, fascinating history as a cross-roads along the great Silk Highway as well as a migration spot for early Christians fleeing persecution in Europe.

Location & Geography of Cappadocia

Cappadocia is located in central Turkey on the high Anatolian Plateau, which is set mostly at an elevation of 1000M / 3300 ft. The plateau was created over the millenium by layers of volcanic ash and soft debris. Wind and erosion in the central plateau at Cappadocia gauged out the area’s deep canyons and rock spires.

Along the edges of Cappadocia there are high volcanic peaks, which can be seen in the distance, snow-capped most of the year. Mt. Erciyes is the highest volcano in the region, at 3916 M / 12,922 ft. (It’s higher than Japan’s Mt. Fuji!)

Brief History of Cappadocia

Cappadocia’s history is extremely long and complex, with traces of human settlements going all the way back to 8000 B.C. And the Bronze Age. It’s often considered one of the cradles of human civilization.

Dozens of different tribes, empires and civilizations have lived in the region, many of which most people have probably never heard of (myself included). They include Hattis, Hitites, Phrygians, Galatians, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuk Turks and Ottoman Turks.

Underground cities have been discovered around Cappadocia that date back to 600s B.C. Later civilizations introduced horses to the region, which became famous for it horse culture.

Cappadocia is centrally-located between Asia & the Middle East on the eastern side, Europe io the west, the Black Sea to the north and Mediterranean Sea to the south. As a result, it became an extremely important crossing region for trade routes such as the Great Silk Road.

The region was also prone to raids & invasions from tribes & empires on its outskirts.

A very important part of Cappadocia’s history and culture came in the 200-300s AD. As Christianity was just developing, early Christians were often persecuted throughout Europe. Thousands of them fled from their homelands and migrated to Cappadocia (though I don’t know why they landed here).

It was these Christians settlers in the Cappadocian canyons & valleys, centered around Goreme up through the 12^th century, who dug out thousands of cave homes, chapels, churches and monasteries into the rock cliffs and pillars. And which are now one of Cappadocia’s main attractions.

Apparently many people in Cappadocia continued living in caves up until the 1920s! And in fact, I saw a few families living in cave homes in Uchisar when I visited in 2020. However, most caves in the canyons are now abandoned, while the majority of cave houses situated in towns have been converted into hotels, guest houses, restaurants and shops.

Also in much more recent history, hot air ballooning got started in Cappadocia in the early 2010s. In 2011 the Hot Air Ballooning Commission was estaablished. In 2012 the Balloon Pilot Associates Degree Program started up and by 2015 hot air ballooning was really taking off in Cappadocia.

By 2019 there were already 190 hot air ballooning companies. They carry 450,000 passengers per year, about half of the entire world’s hot air ballooning tourists.

Amazing Attractions of Cappadocia

Cappadocia’s many magnificent attractions include hot air ballooning & other adventure activities; visiting fantastic cave churches, monasteries & underground cities; and hiking/riding through the stunning canyons.

Stunning Canyons

Hiking through Cappadocia’s many stunning canyons was one of the best & most memorable aspects of my visit. In fact, I rate the hikes right up there with hot air balloon-ing. I feel really lucky to have been in Cappadocia during great weather and to have plenty of time to hike through several of the canyons over several days.

I was really surprised at the sheer beauty and diversity of the canyons. Each one is quite different, particularly for the colors of the rocks and the shapes of rock walls & pinnacles. Rock colors ranged from stark white to soft pink, vibrant mustard yellow, pale green, every shade of gray and beige to bright brick red.

They are actually quite similar to The Bad Lands NP in South Dakota and Bryce Canyon NP in Utah.

My hostel had a great map of the region, showing all the canyons and walking trails. Goreme is situated right smack in the middle of many of the canyons. From my hostel, I could simply walk out to the canyons and begin my hikes. Other canyons required a short bus ride.

Cool Rock Formations

Like the canyons, Cappadocia’s crazy rock formations come in all shapes & sizes. Most are like cones, some like mushrooms, and the wildest look strikingly similar to penises! Those particular rock spires are clustered together in a wide canyon called Love Valley. Ahahaha.

Ancient Cave Homes & Pidgeon Houses

Apparently in the early days of Christianity, 100s-200s AD, Christians were being persecuted in European countries. This lead thousands of Christian believers to emigrate. Many of them went to Cappadocia where they dug cave homes into the sandstone cliffs and rock pillars of the spectacular canyons.

Because the soil was not very fertile, they came to rely on pigeon crap for fertilizer. To encourage the birds to stay, and in large numbers, the cave dwellers built little nooks in the rocks for pigeons to roost. They’re now called pigeon houses and one particular canyon that has thousands of pigeon houses is called Pigeon Valley.

Just about anywhere you go in central Cappadocia, you’ll see the ancient abandoned cave homes and pigeon houses. They’re found all through the canyons and in most of the towns. In fact, nowadays many hotels, guest houses and even hostels have been made from renovated cave homes.

Also, hard as it may be to believe, some people still live in cave homes there!

Historic UNESCO World Heritage Cave Churches & Monasteries

One of the main valleys on the edge of Goreme town has a large concentration of cave churches & monasteries, many Math colorful frescoes and other decorative elements from the Byzantine era. This valley was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1984. It’s called Goreme Open Air Museum and has an entry fee.

There’s also a huge multi-level rock monastery set in a tall cliff at the little town of Cavusin, near Goreme. 

Other major cave churches and monasteries are scattered around the region, further away from the central Goreme / Uchisar area.

Historic Underground Cities

Archeaologists have discovered a series of over 40 underground cities in Cappadocia. The cities vary in size, but were all dug out by hand and consist of several levels of rooms that served different purposes.

As I mentioned above, the oldest date back to 600s B.C. but were later greatly enlarged during the Byzantine era.

The cities are incredibly well-designed. A series of tunnels and staircases lead around the city and between the various levels. There are separate areas for everything a city needs to function: designated places for cooking, food storage, water storage, animal shelters, family ‘homes’, storage of deceased people, chapels, wine production (!) and other places.

Within the rooms there are a lot of details to make things function well, such as nooks in walls to store small objects, troughs dug in walls for animal food & water, holes in floors for food storage and even cut out rungs to tie up animals.

The cities have central air shafts leading from the surface down to the bottom-most levels to keep fresh air circulating and to take up & down water, food & supplies.

Nobody actually knows for sure why the Cappadocians built these sophisticated underground cities!

One of the main theories is that the cities served as temporary housing during raids and warfare. Out on the vast, flat open plateaus, there was no place for residents to hide or run to in the case of an invasion.

Hot Air Ballooning

As I’ve already pointed out, Cappadocia is one of the world’s premiere locations for hot air ballooning. During high season in spring and summer, it’s common to have 150-200 balloons soaring through the sky every morning! With the average basket holding 20-25 passengers, that’s a few thousand passengers per day!

In lower seasons, there could easily be 40-50 balloons on flying days. However, in winter months strong winds can make flying too dangerous many days. Balloons may fly only 1-3 times per week then.

Cappadocia is a fantastic place for ballooning with the spectacular scenery of canyons & rock pillars.

If you want to know what flying in Cappadocia is like, read about my experience here.

Adventure Tours

As Cappadocia became a bigger and bigger tourist destination, locals started coming up with other activities for visitors to enjoy. Nowadays guests can go horseback riding, drive ATVs, join a jeep safari and enjoy various half-day and full-day tours.

I’m generally not one to join tours. I don’t especially like being in a group controlled by a guide and being herded around like a child. I enjoy researching, planning and taking the initiative to do things on my own.

However, I did join a full-day tour in Cappadocia, primarily because there are several major sights that can’t really be reached without a private car. I really, really wanted to see the underground city and the ‘green valley’ and I knew I probably couldn’t reach either without a tour.

So I checked into the full-day ‘Green Tour’ and found out it included long visits to both those sites plus stops at a large cave monastery, views over various valleys, a (huge) lunch and a small volcanic lake. I was in!

That tour cost about $60 US in off season. I almost never pay anywhere near that for a tour or activity. But I can say it was well worth every penny!

Besides seeing all the great sites, I learned so much about Cappadocia’s history, culture and the specific sites. It was fascinating. And our lunch was massive.

The price also included several entry fees. Considering everything that was included, I actually think that price was a bargain. The tour was probably worth more like $100 US when you consider the cost of gas, salaries for the guide & driver, lunch and entry fees.

So in Cappadocia, I highly recommend joining one of the tours that takes you out to the further sites.

Cave Hotels & Hostels

After ballooning, probably Cappadocia’s next biggest draw are its amazing cave hotels, guest houses & hostels. There aren’t many places in the world where you can sleep in a spiffed-up cave!

Many luxury cave hotels offer some pretty spectacular cave rooms with all the modern conveniences added. In fact, some particular rooms have become famous via TV shows!

There’s one cave suite with a waterfall in the bathroom, a couple suites with an indoor swimming pool, some rooms where famous people have slept, a living room with built in wine casks…and other snazzy luxury cave designs.

Luckily, cave rooms come in all price ranges in Cappadocia, so every traveler can afford to sleep in a cave if they want to. There are even cool cave dorm room at hotels in Goreme!

Visiting Cappadocia

The center of tourism, as well as the most spectacular canyons, rock pillars and cave churches, is located at several tiny towns right smack in the middle of this landscape.

Goreme, Uchisar, Urgup and Cavusin are situated just a few miles from each other, with Goreme in the middle. They can all be reached by walking, cycling or taking the regular buses that run between the towns.

On the outskirts is the town of Avanos, which runs along a pretty river and is famous for its pottery.

Each of these towns has its own special attractions.

Uchisar is situated around a huge, tall rock pinnacle, which is the highest point in the region. The town and its many little cave hotels, restaurants and shops circles around the base of the pillar. The pillar itself is a multi-level castle carved into the rock.

Uchisar is also set on a plateau on the edge of a couple of the largest canyons. Nearly every point in the town has spectacular views into the gorge and out across Goreme and the vast plain towards Avanos.

Goreme is in a little ‘cove’ and filled with rock pillars and cave homes. From Goreme its easy to simply walk out into several canyons and up onto plateaus with look-out points.

Urgup is set up over the other side of a few canyons from Goreme. Urgup was the original tourist center of Cappadocia before Goreme became more popular. Like Goreme, Urgup is filled with rock pillars, cave homes and rock walls.

The most spectacular canyons are located between Goreme and Urgup. Hikers can walk to the canyons or else catch a bus to one end and walk from there.

Cavusin is a few kms from Goreme, halfway to Avanos. It’s famous for its hugh, multi-storied open monastery that hovers over the town. Called the ‘Lost City’, it looks like a massive cliff filled with cut out rooms on many levels.

A bit further away are the much larger, more modern cities of Nevsehir and Kayseri. Besides accessing the airports or going for cheaper meals, there’s really no reason to visit those cities.

Getting there …fly or overland bus

Cappadocia is easy to reach from most places in Turkey. You can either fly or take a long overland bus. Flights are often cheaper or the same price as buses, but much faster. From Istanbul it’s just a 1-hour flight.

Regular buses run from Istanbul, Ankara and other cities. From Istanbul, it’s 8-10 hours. From Ankara about 4-5 hours.

Accommodations – every budget from hostels to high-end luxury hotels

As I explained earlier, Cappadocia has accommodations for every type of traveler from budget to 5-star hotels.

The best places to stay, in my opinion, are Goreme and Uchisar. They are both centrally located, easy to reach canyons, and offer spectacular views.

Uchisar tends to be rather expensive, while Goreme has more diversity, including several hostels for budget travelers.

Urgup is also a great choice, but Goreme is more centrally located. Avanos is pretty with its riverside location, but it is outside the spectacular canyon/rock pillar region.

Summary

Cappadocia was one of the best places I visited in Turkey.

The spectacular canyons, crazy rock formations and historic cave homes are really beautiful and fun to explore.

The area’s many cave churches, monasteries and underground cities are equally splendid.

And Cappadocia is one of the best places in the world for hot air ballooning and cave hotels.

I highly recommend visiting and spending as much time as you can, especially for anyone into nature and outdoor adventures.

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