Cappadocia’s must-see attractions.

Cappadocia, the region which born from the ashes, is a magical place, enveloped in mystery and charm. Is well-known for its amazing moon-like landscape, secret underground cities, cave churches and houses carved in the rocks.

Wether for individual traveling amateur photographers or for members of planned photo tours, Cappadocia's beauty is the ideal spot that offers marvelous views, unusual valleys and formations, people and architecture. Everywhere in the region is important in the way of tourism and history but there are some places that it is absolutely needed to see.

  Uchisar castle and the Pigeon valley

Uchisar is arguably the most incredible site in Cappadocia, situated at the highest point in the region, just 7km. from Nevsehir. The castle and its surrounds used to be the most populated area of this settlement.

It is said that in towns with citadels, tunnels run from the citadels to the valley floors. These where built for defence and escape purposes, but are hardly visible now due to collapse and erosion.

However, as the population increased and the danger cause by the erosion became greater, people moved away.The top of the citadel provides a magnificent panorama of the surrounding area. 

The Fairy chimneys north, west and east of Uchisar were hollowed out and used as graves during the Roman period. Dovecotes were cut into the side of fairy chimneys. Folds in the rock,  caused by erosion, can be seen at their best in the Uchisar valley.

   The Selime Cathedral 

 

On one end of the Ihlara valley is the Selime Cathedral, the   biggest rock cut Monastery in Cappadocia. The Monastery was carved by Monks in the 13th century,  and includes  a Cathedral size Church cut into the rock, a kitchen, living quarters and a stable for animals.

This area is “other worldly” and was the inspiration for part of the location set in Star Wars Episode 1, the location where Anakin Skywalker’s “pod race”  took place, if you saw that movie.

It was constructed by the earliest Christians in Anatolia to perform their religious ceremonies in secret. It is believed that this was the place where the first vocal religious ceremony was held by Christians 1,700 years ago.

Walking to simply get to this Cathedral makes you feel like you’re rock climbing. The path leading up and back is extremely narrow with steep rock on both sides. This requires a little bit of skill to navigate across the rocks, through tunnels and a bit of scrambling…