Welcome To Göreme

Çavusin is a village about 4 kilometres from Göreme. The old village is largely deserted because the area has been plagued by rock falls. For this reason it is best to take a guide if you want to visit Çavu?in and to watch your step. At Çavu?in you can visit the Church of John the Baptist which probably dates from the 5th century with paintings from the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries.

Quite nearby another church contains frescos commemorating the passage of  Nicephoras Phocas (a Byzantine Emperor) through Cappadocia in 964 to 965 during his military campaign against Cilicia. Nicephoras may have visited the Church of John the Baptist which was an important centre for pilgrimage at that time.

Göreme has the most beautiful setting in Cappadocia, the hotels and pensions fade into the village and the village fades into the fairy chimneys, hills and valleys. Göreme has seen many changes particularly over the last 20 years as tourism has developed in the area. Nevertheless this small town still has a thriving community working the fields tucked away between the fairy chimneys and carrying on community seasonal activities such as autumn harvest of pumpkin seeds and the preparation of pekmez (made of wine) and village bread to see them through the long winter months. In Göreme you can see the old and new Turkey side by side and as you wander through the winding village streets you will probably be invited to to the tea in one of the ancient cave houses still lived in by local families.Göreme has a friendly and relaxed atmosphere but there is cafe society and nightlife in the center of the village for those who fancy something more lively.

Ortahisar means "middle castle," and as its name implies, it is central among the Cappadocian towns of Goreme, Urgup, Uchisar and Nevsehir, and only a few kilometers from the Goreme Open Air Museum. When entering the town, you will notice doors in the rock surfaces on both sides. These doors are the best example of the cool-air storages in Cappadocia. In these natural air-conditioned rooms, lemons and oranges from the Mediterranean region, apples from Nigde, local potatoes, quinces and onions are stored. Green lemons slowly turn yellow in these store-rooms. Ortahisar is famous for its friendly inhabitants, picturesque stone houses, narrow streets and lovely churches as well as the castle-like rock formation after which the town is named.

Uchisar is situated at the highest point in Cappadocia, on the Nevsehir-Goreme road, just 5 km from Goreme. The top of the Uchisar Castle, provides a magnificent panorama of the surrounding area with Mount Erciyes in the distance. Many rooms hollowed out into the rock are connected to each other with stairs, tunnels and passages. At the entrances of the rooms, there are millstone doors, just like the ones in the underground settlements, used to control access to these places. Due to the erosion in places of this multi-leveled castle, it is unfortunately not possible to reach all the rooms. Most of the rooms, located on the north side of the castle are in use as pigeon houses (dovecuts) today. Farmers used these cave pigeon houses to collect the droppings of pigeons which is an excellent natural fertilizer for the orchards and vineyards.