Cappadocia Tours & Cappadocia Tour Guides

Summary: This is a 1 day private tour with guide. Only on this tour can you see both an underground city and Goreme Open Air Museum on the same day. This tour visits an underground city where locals could hide in safety throughout history, various panoramic viewpoints of castles and fairy chimneys such as Esentepe for Goreme valley, Uchisar and its castle, Pigeon Valley and Urgup’s family of fairy chimneys, Goreme Open Air Museum for Byzantine cave churches with beautiful frescos, Chavushin Castle to see how people lived in the caves, Monks Valley (Pashabaglari) for unique 3–headed fairy chimneys, and Avanos for a local pottery demonstration of an ancient Hittite technique.    Book Now

Price: 230 Euros cash total for 1-4 persons. An additional €15 for each extra person up to maximum 12 persons. Price is for guiding and transportation only. On the tour you pay for your entrances and lunch.    Book Now

Underground City Although all towns and villages in Cappadocia once had safe and secure secret rooms dug out of the soft tufa (tuff) rock, the underground cities are intrinsically different because their size, scale, and evidence of underground city planning. Up to 50 meters deep and 3 kilometers wide, as many as 5,000 people were able to hide safely underground out of site of the enemy, with their store of food that could last for months if necessary. Life (and death) could continue relatively normally in these well-ventilated cities lit by linseed-oil lamps, which had their own water supply, stockpiled food, kitchens, toilets, churches and even graveyards safe behind their gigantic circular mill-stone doors which could only be opened from the inside. The people could even cook food safely, as multiple chimneys dispersed the smoke imperceptibly so their presence would not be discovered by the enemy. On this tour you can visit the more well known but crowded Kaymakli underground city or the less well known and therefore uncrowded Ozkonak underground city.    Book Now

Esentepe Viewpoint is the best panoramic viewpoint from which to see Goreme Valley. The village is full of fairy chimneys, some of which have been converted into homes by cutting caves out of the soft volcanic rock. If you are interested, it may be possible to visit a local family’s cave home and see inside one of these fascinating houses. At Pigeon Valley Viewpoint you have a bird’s eye view of the dovecotes carved out of the rocks as well as a spectacular view of old abandoned fairy chimney cave homes and old Greek houses and castle of Uchisar. Urgup’s Fairy Chimneys, the symbol of Cappadocia, are famously called "The Three Beauties"; another amazing panorama of the Cappadocian countryside where you can see the local's grape gardens with fruit trees as well as an amazing rockscape.    Book Now

Goreme Open Air Museum is home to the world’s most important Byzantine cave churches in these once remote valleys where monks and nuns pursued monastic life from the 3rd century on. Saint Basil, one of the three Cappadocian Fathers of the Church and Bishop of Caesarea (Kayseri) who first formulated the rules for monastic life directly influenced the lifestyle of the monastic orders in these valleys. Here you can see the best preserved in situ Byzantine cave wall paintings and frescos from the Iconoclastic period through to the end of Seljuk rule. Icons with scenes from the Old Testament and the New Testament above portraits of Church Fathers and saints depict the structure of the Byzantine universe. The best examples, the Dark Church and the Buckle Church, should not be missed.    Book Now

Chavushin Castle is a spectacular rock citadel that once housed everyone in the village. While it was a relatively safe place to live, the villagers had to carry their water up to their homes every day. The village was home to many Christians, and Saint John the Baptist’s Church, despite its poor condition, is still worth finding. You can alxo follow a narrow path to the top of the castle visiting some of the more recently lived-in homes on the way. As you descend on the other side there are some lovely examples of fairy chimneys.    Book Now

Pashabagi means "The Pasha’s Vineyard", a name it received after the Byzantine Greek population left the region. In Seljuk and Ottoman times, it was called "Papaz’in Bagi" or "The Monk’s Vineyard" because Christian hermits chose to locate hermit cells and churches in these three-headed pinnacles symbolic of the Holy Trinity. Perhaps such symbolism helped these monks develop a greater understanding of God. This peaceful, attractive valley is famous for its three headed fairy chimneys, and it’s possible to see all the stages in the formation of fairy chimneys at this spot. The vineyards surrounding these natural wonders are still cultivated by locals (you can taste the grapes from September on), and trees such as apricot, apple, pear, quince, cherry, mulberry and walnut are plentiful.    Book Now

Avanos has been famous for thousands of years for its pottery made from the red, iron-ore bearing clay deposited by the longest river in Turkey, the Kizilirmak (Red River). During the second millennium BCE, Avanos was inhabited by Assyrian traders and was later taken over by the Hittites; some of the techniques and designs used by potters today date back to this period. At one time every house had a potters wheel, and no family would give their daughter in marriage if the groom could not make pots! Today, the best of the ceramics and tiles on sale in Istanbul and other major cities are made here. You can watch potters spinning their traditional kick-wheels with their feet, and even try throwing a pot yourself.    Book Now