Goreme Trip Overview
Cappadocia is a great location to spend a private day to discover its magic. Zelve Valley and the Goreme Open-air Museum with its churches carved out of rock, pottery art centre Avanos as well as the Kaymakli underground city where early Christians found refuge are all waiting for you to discover with the narration of your local guide.
Additional Info
Duration: 8 hours
Starts: Goreme, Turkey
Trip Category: Day Trips & Excursions >> Day Trips
Explore Goreme Promoted Experiences
What to Expect When Visiting Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey
Cappadocia is a great location to spend a private day to discover its magic. Zelve Valley and the Goreme Open-air Museum with its churches carved out of rock, pottery art centre Avanos as well as the Kaymakli underground city where early Christians found refuge are all waiting for you to discover with the narration of your local guide.
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: Zelve Open Air Museum, Zelve Yolu, Nevsehir Turkey
The Zelve Open-Air Museum, which once housed one of the largest communities in the region is an amazing cave town, honeycombed with dwellings, religious and secular chambers. Zelve is situated about 10 km out from Goreme on the Avanos road. Here, the Christians and Muslims lived together in perfect harmony, until 1924. Then Christians had to leave the Valley because of the exchange of minorities between Greece and Turkey, and the Muslims were forced to evacuate the Valley in the 50’s when life became dangerous due to risk of erosion. They left the site to set up a modern village, a little further on, to which they gave the name Yeni Zelve (New Zelve).
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Stop At: Fairy Chimneys, Goreme Turkey
Pasabag in Cappadocia is located on the road to Zelve, coming from Goreme or Avanos. Highly remarkable earth pillars can be seen here, in the middle of a vineyard, hence the name of the place which means: the Pacha’s vineyard. Pacha means “General”, the military rank, in Turkish and it is a very common nick name. This site is also called Monks Valley. The name was derived from some cones carved in tuff stones which stand apart. Currently, there is a vineyard and a number of tuff cones standing right next to the road.
Some of these cones split into smaller cones in their upper sections, in which stylites and hermits once hid. The hermitage of Simeon monks was also here. A chapel dedicated to St. Simeon (Simon), and a hermit’s shelter is built into one of the fairy chimneys with three heads. The entrance of the cell is decorated with antithetical crosses. Saint Simeon was living in seclusion near Aleppo in the 5th century, when rumours that he made miracles started to spread.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Stop At: Avanos Oren Yeri, Kapadokya Cd., Avanos 50500 Turkey
The old city of Avanos, whose name in ancient times was Venessa, overlooks the longest river of Turkey, the Kızılırmak (Red River), which also separates Avanos from the rest of Cappadocia.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Kaymakli Underground City, Derinkuyu Turkey
aymakli underground city is built under the hill known as the Citadel of Kaymakli and was opened to visitors in 1964. The people of Kaymakli (Enegup in Greek) village have constructed their houses around nearly one hundred tunnels of the underground city. The inhabitants of the region still use the most convenient places in the tunnels as cellars, storage areas and stables, which they access through their courtyards. The Kaymakli Underground City has low, narrow and sloping passages. While the underground city consists of 8 floors below ground, only 4 of them are open to the public today, in which the spaces are organized around ventilation shafts.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
