Cappadocia: Ihlara and Underground City Day Tour

Goreme Trip Overview

The Ihlara tour, known as the Green Tour on Lonely Planet, is a great itinerary that covers South Cappadocia’s highlights. It’s another good option to combine with the North Cappadocia in order to see the best of Cappadocia.

Additional Info

Duration: 7 hours
Starts: Goreme, Turkey
Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours



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What to Expect When Visiting Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey

The Ihlara tour, known as the Green Tour on Lonely Planet, is a great itinerary that covers South Cappadocia’s highlights. It’s another good option to combine with the North Cappadocia in order to see the best of Cappadocia.

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Kaymakli Underground City, Derinkuyu Turkey

As Cappadocia’s largest underground city, Derinkuyu has approximately seven floors and runs 85m deep. It contains all the usual rooms found in an underground city: stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, churches, wineries, etc. The compound even includes a missionary school, a large room featuring a vaulted ceiling and study rooms set apart on the left. Vertical staircases take care of the descent down from the third and fourth floors, leading to a cruciform plan church on the lowest floor. The 55m deep ventilation shaft was also used as a well. To protect dwellers from poisoning during raids, some floors were left without surface access. Although Derinkuyu Underground City was opened to visitors in 1965, to this day, only 10% of the city can be visited.

Duration: 2 hours

Stop At: Ihlara Valley, Guzelyurt 68500 Turkey

Early Christians constructed their rock houses and temples by carving the tuffs in the valley of Ihlara, where the Melendiz River runs. Because of the waters of the Ilhara, the people are called “Peristrema:””The people of circulating waters.” Searching for the source of the water, in Ihlara, is like trying to reveal the meaning of life. It takes 2.5 hours to walk from the Ihlara Vadisi to Belisirma, and about 3 hours to walk from Belisirma to Selime.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Belisirma, Belisirma, Aksaray Province

After trekking through the Ihlara Valley, visitors will be treated to a much-needed smorgasbord lunch in Belisirma, featuring a mixture of Turkish and Western food and including dessert.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Pigeon Valley, Uchisar KasabasI Nevşehir Kapadokya, Goreme 50240 Turkey

A stop on the outskirts of Goreme reveals Pigeon Valley, with centuries-old pigeon houses carved from the cliffs. In those times, many farmers used pigeon manure as fertilizer for their crops.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Selime Monastery, Guzelyurt Turkey

A vast kitchen and a soaring chimney are a few of the features that set Selime Monastery apart. The rock-cut structure is a church surrounded by a gallery, also featuring stables with feeding troughs and other evidence of the troglodyte lifestyle.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Goreme Panorama, Uchisar Yolu uzeri 1.km, Goreme 50180 Turkey

Solidified lava streams from the Neocene period have shaped the magnificent ash and tuff landscape of Goreme. These thousands of years of erosion have created a gorgeous lunar landscape, full of fairy chimneys of all colors.

Duration: 1 hour



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