We spent 10 days in Cappadocia from the 2nd to the 11th of july 2015. It was our first stay in this wonderful region of Turkey. We, of course, knew that this region offers spectacular landscapes, and that many carved churches decorated with superb frescoes could be visited, but we also met lots of welcoming and kind people, being happy to discuss with us about their country and their way they live. They are grateful with visitors coming to their country. Europeans are less and less visiting Turkey, they are in fact replaced by Chinese, Japanese and other Asian people.

We stayed in a very nice, and very well situated hotel : the KAYA HOTEL or Uchisar. It was built in 1964-1965, and was the first ever cave carved hotel in the world. The first two stares were carved by Uchisar folks in the stone composed of volcano ashes. The view from this hotel over Goreme valley and the Pigeon valley is breathtaking and each morning we could admire balloons flying over the landscape.

Cappadocia is a Turkish region very popular as a tourist destination, as it has many areas with unique geological, historic, and cultural features.

Touristic Cappadocia includes 4 cities: Nevsehir, Kayseri, Aksaray and Nigde. The most touristic towns in Cappadocia are Ürgüp, Goreme, Ihlara Valley, Selime, Guzelyurt, Uchisar, Avanos and Zelve. Among the underground cities worth seeing are Derinkuyu, Kaymakli, Gaziemir and Ozkanak. The best historic mansions and cave houses for tourist stays are in Urgup, Goreme, Guzelyurt and Uchisar.

Hot-air ballooning is very popular in Cappadocia and is available in Goreme. Trekking is enjoyed in Ihlara Valley, Monastery Valley (Guzelyurt), Urgup and Goreme.

Sedimentary rocks formed in lakes and streams and ignimbrite deposits that erupted from ancient volcanoes approximately 9 to 3 million years ago, during Miocene to Pliocene, which underlied the Cappadocia region. The rocks of Cappadocia near Göreme eroded into hundreds of spectacular pillars and minaret-like forms.

People of the villages at the heart of the Cappadocia Region carved out houses, churches and monasteries from the soft rocks of volcanic deposits. Göreme became a monastic centre in 300–1200 AD.

The first period of settlement in Göreme goes back to the Roman period. The Yusuf Koç, Ortahane, Durmus Kadir and Bezirhane churches in Göreme, and houses and churches carved into rocks in the Uzundere, Bağıldere and Zemi Valleys all illustrate history and can be seen today.

The Göreme Open Air Museum is the most visited site of the monastic communities in Cappadocia, and is one of the most famous sites in central Turkey. The complex contains more than 30 carved-from-rock churches and chapels, some having superb frescoes inside, dating from the 9th century to the 11th century.

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