South Cappadocia (Green Tour)

South Cappadocia tour also known as Green tour at Lonely Planet’s recommendations. It’s a great itinerary which covers all highlights of the South Cappadocia and when combined with North Cappadocia tour at second day, two tours would cover all Cappadocia’s highlights.

Pick-up: 9:00 to 9:30
Tour end: Afternoon around 17:30

South Cappadocia (Green Tour) Itinerary

DERINKUYU UNDERGROUND CITY

Derinkuyu is Cappadocia’s biggest underground, with approximately 7 floors and 85 meters deep. It contains all the usual rooms found in an underground city (stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, churches, wineries, etc.). Apart from these, a large room with a barrel vaulted ceiling on the second floor was a missionary school, with the rooms to the left being study rooms. From the 3rd and 4th floors onwards, the descent is by way of vertical staircases, which lead to a cruciform-plan church on the lowest floor. The 55-meter-deep ventilation shaft was also used as a well. Not every floor was provided with surface access in order to protect the dwellers from poisoning during raids. Derinkuyu Underground City was opened to visitors in 1965, but so far, only 10% have visited.

IHLARA VALLEY

Early Christians constructed their rock houses and temples by carving the tuffs in the valley of Ihlara. Through the valley runs the Melendiz River. The waters of the river are named Ihlara as Peristrema, meaning “the people of circulating waters.” To search for the source of the water in Ihlara is, in fact, trying to reveal the meaning of life. It takes 2 1/2 hours to walk from the Ihlara Vadisi to Belisirma and about 3 hours to walk from Belisirma to Selime.

BELISIRMA AND LUNCH

After walking through Ihlara Valley, you will be driven to Belisirma for a smorgasbord lunch, a mixture of Turkish and Western food, including dessert.

PIGEON VALLEY

You will stop on the outskirts of Goreme village and look down into Pigeon Valley to see the centuries-old pigeon houses carved from the cliffs. Throughout the years, farmers have used pigeon manure as a rich source of fertilizer for their crops.

SELIME MONASTRY

Selime Monastery is an astonishing rock-cut structure incorporating a vast kitchen and soaring chimney. A church with a gallery all around it, stables with feeding troughs, and other evidence of the troglodyte lifestyle.

GOREME ESENTEPE (PANAROMIC VIEW)

The magnificent landscape around Goreme has been formed from its solidified lava streams, its ash, and tuff stones, all dating from the Neocene period. The result of thousands of years of continual erosion makes this area look like a lunar landscape. The fairy chimneys also have a great color variety. There are light and dark colors, from white to yellow, pink, grey, and black.

South Cappadocia Tour Includes:

•  Professional tour guide
•  Entrance fees
•  Lunch on theres