Among the fairy chimneys Population: 2,000
Old names: Corama, Macan, Matiana, Avçılar
Market day: Wednesday
If Cappadocia lies at the very heart of Turkey, then Göreme, the tiny troglodytic settlement that wraps itself like bindweed around the dramatic fairy chimneys, lies at the very heart of Cappadocia. Despite its seemingly remote location, this is an extraordinarily vibrant little community whose residents have been living with tourism for the best part of five decades. Not surprisingly, they know a thing or two about how to please their thousands upon thousands of annual visitors.
Although it started its touristic life as a backpacker favourite, Göreme is now much more upmarket with hotels catering for the most discerning of customers and a few restaurants and shops to match.
The village makes a great base for exploring Cappadocia. It’s within easy walking distance of the Göreme Open Air Museum with its many frescoed churches, and within short dolmuş rides of Uçhisar, Avanos and Ürgüp.
Rock-cut Roman tomb (“Kale”) that is symbol of Göreme
Local tour companies book day trips to sites such as the Ihlara and Soğanlı valleys that are further afield. A few arrange short tours to attractions outside Cappadocia such as Nemrut Dağı (Mt Nemrut). Some even offer a full travel agency service and can book tours all around the country.
In the 2020s Göreme succumbed to Instagram fever, with shops opening to rent floaty dresses to tourists who could then be winched into the air on cranes to have their picture taken against a backdrop of the balloons. It would be a mistake to come here these days expecting much trace of its old village atmosphere.
Old Göreme
The original Göreme was actually Corama, the Byzantine monastic settlement hunkered down in a giant plug of rock just over one km from the modern settlement, where the road starts its ascent up the hill to Ortahisar.
Here from the seventh century a community of monks and nuns made their homes, hollowing out the rock to create miniature churches and tiny chapels as well as refectories and storerooms. Here, in the peace of what was then empty countryside, they could contemplate their beliefs undisturbed, a pleasure rarely possible for modern visitors who must admire the artworks left behind and now protected inside the Göreme Open Air Museum alongside a myriad other tourists.
Luckily these artworks are wonderful enough to make up for the crowds, their designs reflecting trends in the wider Byzantine world while also betraying their provincial origins. The oldest of the churches such as the Azize Barbara Kilise (St Barbara’s Church) are decorated with what are little more than children’s sketches in red ochre. In many cases such sketches were covered over later with more elaborate paintings; in some of the churches you can see the process in action where the overcoat has peeled away to reveal the drawings underneath.
Finest of all the churches is the 11th-century Karanlık Kilise (Dark Church)which is completely covered in brilliantly colourful and perfectly restored paintings of scenes from the life of Jesus.
Easier to miss but bigger and equally impressive is the Tokalı Kilise (Buckle Church), across the road from the main museum site but accessible with the same ticket. Here 10th-century frescoes of the Bible stories are strung out along the ceilings like strip cartoons which visitors could have “read” in the days before mass literacy.
Restoring the Tokalı Kilise, 2011
If you can’t stand the crowds, don’t despair since there are plenty of other churches in Göreme that you can have entirely to yourself. Just uphill from the museum, for example, signs point to the Aynalı Kilisesi (Symmetrical Church, AKA Fırkatan Kilisesi), a huge basilica with a synthronon (stone seating) running round its apse, and monastic buildings and what appears to have been a meeting room roaming off to the rear.
Strolling back to the centre of Göreme, once the Byzantine settlement of Macan, along the main road you’ll also see signs off on the left to the restored El Nazar Kilise. It contains frescoes dating back to the 11th century but attracts relatively few visitors.
Yusuf Koç ChurchEven within Göreme itself there are possibilities. You can, for example, visit the 11th-century Yusuf Koç Kilise (church) in a very pretty, secluded location and attached to the remains of a privately-owned monastic complex complete with rock-cut refectory. Here on the walls you’ll be able to make out frescoes of the warrior saints Theodore and George, the patron saint of Cappadocia.
Not far away you can also drop in on the seventh-century Durmuş Kadir Kilise which lacks frescoes but makes up for it by having an unexpected rock-cut ambo (pulpit) standing right in the middle of the nave.
Finally, cut into the wall of rock beneath the Esentepe plateau (the road leading to Uçhisar) you can visit the huge, soot-blackened Bezirhane, a church that was later turned into a linseed-oil-making factory.
New Göreme
It was the ancient churches and monasteries that won Göreme its UNESCO world heritage site listing but the village itself has plenty to offer those who don’t much care what went on in Byzantine times. You could, for example, try and get access to the 19th-century Mehmed Paşa Konagı, once home to the local governor.
These days it’s a rare visitor who doesn’t get their bearings on the landscape from the basket of one of the many hot-air balloons that take to the skies daily, weather permitting. From on high it’s possible to appreciate the way in which Göreme sits in the centre of a spider’s web of valleys that spread out in every direction, each with its own character and each with its selection of minor rock-cut monuments.
But if the scenery looks fantastic from the air it looks even better when you get up close and personal with it on a trek through one of the valleys. Behind the Tourist Hotel, just off the Open Air Museum road, a beginner’s walk leads to the Zemi Valley where even the least agile of visitors will be able to admire magnificent examples of fairy chimneys, some of them complete with caps of harder rock that protect them from erosion.
For those of a sturdier disposition, a walk along the Güvercinlik Vadisi (“Pigeon Valley”) from neighbouring Uçhisar back to Göreme is a great adventure, offering ample opportunity to admire the traces of pigeon-houses from which it took its name and wonder how on earth villagers used to get into these lofty structures to dig out the guano that they used to use to fertilise their fields.
Some of the other valleys are best visited with a guide, either alone or as part of a day trip taking in other attractions as well. It’s also possible to hire a horse or quad-bike to explore the valleys, usually with a guide.
Sleeping
Many of Göreme’s finest hotels have been created out of cave houses that were lived in right into the 2010s. Some retain rock-cut features as reminders of a traditional way of life that is no more.
Anatolian Houses. Tel: 0384-271 2463
Aydınlı Cave House. Tel: 0384-271 2263
Fairy Chimney Inn. Tel: 0384-271 2655Kismet Cave House. Tel: 0384-271 2416
Gedik Cave Hotel. Tel: 0384-271 2733
Kelebek Hotel & Pension. Tel: 0384-271 2531
Koza Cave Hotel. Tel: 0384-271 2466
Mithra Cave Hotel. Tel: 0384-271 2295
Sultan Cave Suites. Tel: 0384-271 3023
Taşkonak. Tel: 0384-271 2680
Tekkaya Guesthouse. Tel: 0384-271 2938
Terra Hotel. Tel: 0384-271 2531
Traveller’s Cave Hotel. Tel: 0384-271 2780
Kadir Durmuş ChurchTransport info
The nearest airports to Göreme are at Tuzköy (Nevşehir International Airport, NAV) and Kayseri (ASR).
Turkish Airlines flies from İstanbul to Kayseri and Nevşehir. Shuttle buses will transfer you right to your hotel door but must be booked in advance. Sun Express offers flights from Antalya to Kayseri and Pegasus flies from İzmir to Kayseri.
Göreme’s otogar is in the centre of the village. Overnight buses link Göreme with İstanbul and Antalya, via a change in Nevşehir. There are also regular buses from Ankara to Nevşehir with infrequent connections on to Göreme.
There are dolmuşes every half-hour to Nevşehir passing through Uçhisar; in winter they stop by 6pm. There are also hourly buses to Avanos via Çavuşin, and hourly services to Ürgüp passing the turn-off for Ortahisar – in winter this service stops by late afternoon.
To visit the underground cities at Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı you need to take a dolmuş to Nevşehir and grab an onward connection.
Travel agencies
Heritage Travel. Tel: 0374-271 2687, www.goreme.com
Middle Earth. Tel: 0384-271 2559, www.middleearthtravel.com
Chapel of St Hieron, patron saint of GöremeDay trip destintions
