Mokissos - Nora – Cappadocia - Turkey

Mokissos; The ruins of an early mediaval city spread across a volcanic field behind the town of Helvadere, 12 km south of Ihlara. It is called either Mocissus/Mokissos or Nora depending on sources you belive.

The site is unsigned. Getting there involves a half-hour clamber across boulders, but the setting and the views fully reward the effort. The perfect volcanic cone of the Hasandağı rises in the back. Vast armies of sheep march past in the evening. There is not a trace of the modern world in evidance.

The city was destroyed by an eathquake after the 9th century. There is much standing, though the shells of several churches (31 of them according to the shepherds) are recognisable.

Further up, the flanks of the mountain are covered by a forest surprising thick for this part of Turkey. You may drive up 5 km to the recreation area at Bozkurt yaylası ("Pastures of Brown wolf"), and use the footpath to walk down to the ruins.

 

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Uçhisar – Cappadocia – Turkey

In the centre of Uçhisar stands the tallest fairy chimney of all, a 40 meter cone of perforated rock looking like a giant block of Swiss cheese. The whole population of the town once lived in this “Uçhisar Castle“. Climbing it is one of the highlights of Cappadocia.

At the foot of the cone is the Tekeli District, a perfectly unspolied collection of cave houses clinging to the steep hillside. Mostly abandoned in the’80s, the neighbourhood was brought back to life by a French architect who converted a dozen of the derelict houses into holiday accommodations of great aesthetic verve.

Imitators follewed, and Uçhisar now competes with Ürgüp as the best town to spend a night-or a second life- in Cappadocia

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Göreme - Cappadocia

The classic Cappadocian tourist village, a bazaarville set in a fantastic landscape of fairy chimneys and strangely shaped rock. Grown in the backpacking 70s,göreme has found it hard to shed its downbudget image. A number of classy recent additions point the way to change.

The upper sections hide some surprisingly quiet and picturesque nooks, which reward a stroll if you can slip the persistent squands of carpet sellers and self-appointed guides.

Monastery Valley

A 10- minute walk up from the village centre is the entrance to the Göreme Cave Churches Open Air Museum, the chief tourist sight of Cappadocia. The fenced-in valley once hosted a community of Byzantine monks, who settled into a magnificent cluster of fairy chimneys.

They build more than 20 churches, of which about 12 retain their paintings. Some are barely large enough for 20 people. In the summer they receive an avarage of 7000 visitors a day.

Most frescoes date from the 11th and 12th centuries. Their style varies from church to church: some betray the influence-or the presence-of imperial artist sent down from Costantinople. The finest are in the so-called Dark Church , which reopened in 1998 after many years in restoration, and the Tokalı Church, which is located opposite the parking outside the main museum area. The Hidden Church, also a short distance outside, first cane to light in the 1950s.

Love Valley

Located immediately behind Monastery Valley on the southwest, this valley obtains its popular name from the shape of giant natural pillars grouped together nears it entrance. It is a quiet and impressive place when tour groups are not present. The walkpath skirts grapevines and walnuts, all of which are full of fruit in early autumn.

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Çavuşin - Zelve - Avanos - Cappadocia

The valley of Kızılçukur (Red Hollow) starts 3 km. north of Ürgüp on the Avanos road, and requires 1,5 hours to walk to lovely village square of Çavuşin. It is a popular hiking destination. The path runs across a perfectly sculpted lanscape of pink tufa pock marked with pigeon grids.

The cave church of St John the Baptist in Çavuşin, dated to the 5th century, is the oldest identifiable in Cappadocia. Paintings in the Güvercinlik Church commemorate a visit by the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus Phocas II (963-969), a native of the region. Pigeon were cultivated in the past for their droppings. Industrial fertilizers are now preferred.

Zelve

ucked away in the pink hills 4 km east of Çavuşin is Zelve, the largest deserted cave community in Cappadocia. The settlement spreads along three valleys separated by narrow ridges; secret passageways give access from valley to valley.

Houses are cut into the near-vertical rock, where a rope ladder would be usually necessary for access.
Zelve started as a monastic community around the same time as Göreme. It was later taken up by the peasants who continued to live here until evicted by the government in 1952. Some indemnity suits resulting from that action still drag on in courts.

Avanos

Avanos is a local market town and handicrafts centre. Set on the right bank of the Kızılırmak (Red River), the old town is full of quaint balconied houses and shops emulating Ali Baba’s treasure trove for the benefit of tourists. Most famous is the manufacture of pottery from the red mud of the river. Some workshops are located in labyrinth-like underground chambers. They can be toured on request.

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Ürgüp - Cappadocia

A lively market town, Ürgüp is unoffical capital of tourists Cappadocia. The newer part is uninteresting, but the Old Town, in several clusters at the foot of Temenni Hill, is an outstanding labyrinth of caves and old-style Cappadocian stone houses. Some of the finest small hotels of Turkey are cut into rock in this unlikely setting.

An entire cave neighbourhood in the Kayadibi district is now being overhauled in a cultural recyling project on massive scale

Living in Rock

A typical house has a frontage built in more or less elegant masonry. In the back, it blends into cave rooms cut into the crazily undulating cliff. Further up the hill, where the poor lived, the masonry disappears altogether.

Some caves are several hundred years old. Most are fashioned with sculpted niches, columns, buried ovens (tandır) and wine pressing basins. Some have private chapels.

Cave living went out of fashion after the ’60s, when modernity demanded moving on and up into cement. More recently, urban (and expatriate) trend-setters have rediscovered it with glee. A few hollows of Ürgüp rock, with a small courtyard in front, now sell for 100.000 dollars and up. Carving them into a comfortable house costs another 100.000 or so.

The result is often brillant-cosy, embracing, strangely soothing houses that a cave is the natural dwelling of man. The absence of all tremor is a revelation. Having a mountain on one’s back gives an unexpected sense of security. The imagination soars when freed from the dictatorship of straight walls.

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Cappadocia – An Introduction

Historic Cappadocia was a large country that covered much of east-central Anatolia, with Kayseri as its capital. In modern travel talk the name refers to a much smaller area bounded by the towns of Aksaray, Özkonak, İncesu, Yeşilhisar, and Niğde. Its hub is a 15 by 15 km triangle formed by Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Avanos.

The land

The fantastic landscape is the product of three volcanoes – the Erciyas, Melendiz and Hasandağı – whose prehistoric eruptions covered the earth with a blanket of ash.

The top sights- the monastery valley of Göreme, the cave village of Zelve, the  castle of Uçhisar, and the underground towns of Kaymaklı or Derinkuyu – are on everybody’s seelist; so they are permanently crowded with tourist.

Mercifully, plenty of other highlights remain almost undiscovered. Many lie in a compact area that is barely a half hour’s drive from end to end.

Hiking is a good way to begin to fall in love. Choices range from a half-hour stroll in Love Valley to a full 6-hour trek along the Ihlara Gorge (Ihlara Valley). Another way to make sure you leave your heart behind is to go hot-air ballooning. Cappadocia is advertised as one of the world’s best terrains for that activity, and several companies are there to let you take advantage.

when to go to cappadocia

Summer is hot and crowded, and winter can be bleak. May and June are delighful, thogh noting, in our opinion, beats the turing of the leaves in late Semtember and early October.

Where to stay in Cappadocia

Ürgüp, Göreme, Uçhisar and Avanos are lively towns that offer some lovely accommodation-mostly in caves or even inside fairy chimneys-in addition to interesting shoping and a few decent restaurants. They are your obvious chois for headquarters, though you may also want to spend a night or two in the quieter settting of out-of-the-way towns like Mustafapaşa or Güzelyurt.

Checklist

Here’s a highly un-objective list of our personal favourites. You may be totally alone at several of them.

Hiking the Kızılçukur Valley to Çavuşin

Love Valley near Göreme

Church of St Theodore in Yeşilöz

The back way to İbrahimpaşa from Ortahisar.

Mustafapaşa town

Soğanlı

Erdemli Valley

Gümüşler Monasatery near Niğde

Güzelyurt and the Red Church

Ihlara Valley

Mokissos/Helvadere

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