Goreme Cappadocia

Göreme Top 9 Sights

Gorgeous Goreme

Located in Cappadocia, a central region of Turkey, Göreme is a touristy but easy going, small town with lots to see and do. Our top 9 favourite places, which will be described in future posts, were: 

•         Love Valley Hike
•         Rose Valley Hike -- Kizilcukar Viewpoint
•         Zemi Valley Hike -- El Nazar Kilise Viewpoint
•         Devrent Valley Walk
•         Sunset Viewpoint
•         Ortahısar Viewpoint
•         Uchisar View
•         P. Valley View
•         Soganli Valley

Kizkalesi to Göreme

After taking a photo of the soft sand beach in Kizkalesi, we set sail for Göreme.  At first it was flat and boring, until we turned north on the expressway to Ankara.  The scenery changed from palm trees to sparse shrubs. 

Towering Taurus Mountains

Then we climbed over the pass to 1365 m above sea level.  Suddenly there were snow-clad mountains framed by a hazy blue sky. 

 

The ancient Mesopotamians (present day Iraq & Syria) believed the storm-gods caused torrential thunderstorms in these mountains that created the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which were essential to their civilization.  The bull was commonly used as the symbol of the storm gods and so even today this range is called the Taurus Mountains.

 

Nevşehir

Once we descended onto a high plateau (Cappadocia), it was again flat and treeless.  The expressway went almost all the way to Nevşehir, where we saw the first cliff side huts.  Nevşehir is very modern, large city compared to Göreme.   



Uchisar Volcanic Plug

 

Then we headed east to Uchisar and suddenly we were hit with hoodoo formations and a castle on the slopes of a very high volcanic plug.  There were stalls, a camel and lots of tourists. 

 

Fred the Camel

 

 

 

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