Cappadocia’s “Middle Castle” Population 3,100
Market day: Sunday
For decades Ortahisar was a forgotten backwater even though the seeming modernity of the high streets concealed a lovely old village of stone houses lurking behind impressive gateways in the back streets. Many of the locals earned a living from managing cave storage units where citrus fruit from the coast would fatten up over the winter. Now as Göreme, Uçhisar and Avanos reach hotel-saturation point Ortahisar’s turn to join the tourism frenzy has finally come and there is as much building work going on here as elsewhere in Cappadocia as the locals seek to cash in on the potential value of their old cave homes.
The namesake “castle/kale” (really a giant fairy chimney pierced with caves) sits in a dip, making it less conspicuous from a distance than Uçhisar’s “Outer Castle”. In the 2010s it was completely restored to make it safe for visitors and now it is lit up at night in a rotating range of colours.
To find out more about Ortahisar’s recent history look out for Craig Mair’s A Time in Turkey (John Murray), published in 1973.
Around town
Ortahisar boasts a small privately owned museum housed in the main square. This is equipped with dioramas which illustrate different aspects of the old traditional life in Cappadocia: men hacking caves out of the rock, women weaving carpets on looms set up in their homes, a young woman serving coffee to watchful potential in-laws, and people gathering at the well and tying rags to the tree beside it in the hope that their wishes will come true.
Turn down Hacı Teleğraf Caddesi and you will find many fine stone houses, including an especially imposing one which bestrides the sort of arched street (abbara) more familiar in Mardin.
The road wends its way downhill and then veers left; in gaps between the houses on the right-hand side of the road you will catch glimpses of the beautiful Balkan Deresi (Valley) which is studded with pigeon-houses cut into a solid wall of rock and takes walkers eventually to İbrahimpaşa. One or two simple rock-cut churches keep a low profile inside private houses here, and there are more out in the valley, although you may need the help of a guide to find them.
You won’t need a guide to find the Hallaç Manastırı (Wool Fluffer’s Monastery, otherwise known as the Hospital Monastery), which is signposted on the left as you come into Ortahisar from the junction with the Nevşehir-Ürgüp road. It takes a walk of no more than a km from the road to find this monastery, and although the walk starts unpromisingly because of the litter abandoned in the fields, it gradually picks up until suddenly you find yourself alone amid the vineyards looking towards a giant slice of rock pitted with pigeon-houses.
Here, you will find yourself in a natural courtyard reminiscent of those at the Açık Saray at nearby Gülşehir. The crosses, pilasters, and arcades of horseshoe-shaped arches adorning the façade hint that this must once have been an important settlement, an impression that will be confirmed when you step inside the church and spot its lofty rock-cut columns. In the 10th or 11th century, these were decorated with paintings which betray an almost child-like simplicity; the only sign of anything grander is a panel of virtually indecipherable fresco still adorning the apse.
There are two other sizeable chambers, one of them a basilica lined with more rock-cut columns, the other a square room whose dome has caved in.
Long after the monks were gone the locals returned to carve pigeon-houses into the rock. These are decorated with fine geometric patterns in blue and green. It’s a mystery why so few people visit a place so beautiful.
In 2024 some bizarre sort of Ortahisar or Cappadocia Experience was nearing completion on the outskirts of Ortahisar.
Sleeping
Elaa Cave Hotel Tel: 0535-962 0464
Ortahisar Evi Tel: 0384-343 3862
Transport info
There are hourly dolmuşes to Ortahisar from Nevşehir and half-hourly dolmuşes from Ürgüp.
Day trip destinations
