"Cappadocia"- A Place Straight Out Of A Fairytale

The first word that comes to my mind when I think of Cappadocia are the “Fairy Chimneys”. When we visited Cappadocia, we were in awe seeing the entire land covered with these beautiful rock formations. Each tall structure is different and unique from the other. Some stretch as tall as 40 m high. Standing amidst thousands of fairy chimneys stretching across the land was a sight to behold. Listening to our tour guide tell us tales of the land, taking in the magnanimity of the view in front of us and feeling the subtle touch of the silent breeze against my skin while it wrapped us all up in a blanket made me believe in fairytales.

Being in Cappadocia convinced us that the land had a unique way of weaving its magic on anyone who visited the place.
-coupletraveltales

What are these Fairy Chimneys?

Fairy Chimneys are geological rock formations formed over millions of years ago when ashes from volcanic eruptions that happened overtime, collectively solidified to form a soft rock called “Tuff”. With time, erosion made it what it is today. This is how fairy chimneys of Cappadocia were formed.

I looked at the highest peak of each of the three fairy chimneys that stood tall, right in front of me and remembered watching the pictures online, when we were planning our trip to Türkiye. Standing right next to one of them so close felt surreal. I walked to touch the fairy chimney to feel the rock. It felt soft but at the same time hard enough to stand that way.

Apart from the scientific explanation, our guide also told us stories that gave these rock formations its name. The locals here believe that these fairy chimneys were once home to fairies, some do believe they still continue to live there and hence the name. History however tells a different story, during the Roman era, when the persecuted Christians fled to Cappadocia, they noticed that these rock formations were soft enough to dig in. They used these volcanic rock formations to build shelters, caves, churches and hideouts.

Our favourite experiences in Cappadocia!

1. Exploring the Fairy Chimneys

First one on our list is obviously taking time to explore the fairy chimneys. You’ll find plenty of these tall volcanic rock formations spread throughout the Village of Göreme.

2. Staying in Cave Hotels

We stayed in Cappadocia for 5 days and decided to split our stay and chose two cave hotels for our accommodation. We chose Lunar Cappadocia Hotel and Mithra Cave Hotel for our stay. You’ll definitely be spoilt for choice, as the whole city of Göreme is filled with cave hotel stays. You can pick a stay based on whatever suits your budget the best.

3. Enjoying the traditional Turkish Breakfast

4. Red and Green Tours in Cappadocia

You can check out our Blog to know more about the red and green tours of Cappadocia. These are the main tours that we chose to explore Cappadocia. We recommend choosing these tours for two main reasons: Firstly, the tour guides accompanying you during the tours will explain all about the places you visit during the tour. The second reason is because they are quite economical, considering how much you’ll have to pay otherwise for transport to reach each destination.

Red Tour starts by 9 am and ends by around 5 pm. Red Tour also known as “the North Cappadocia Tour” covers the following places:

Goreme Open Air Museum
Pasabag Monks Valley
Devrent Imagination Valley
Avanos Town (Pottery Workshops)
Fairy Chimneys

Green Tour (also called “The South Cappadocia Tour”) starts by 9 am and ends by 6:30 pm and covers the following places:

Ihlara Valley
Kaymakli Underground City.
Selime Monastery
Nar crater lake
Esentepe Viewpoint (Pigeon Valley Viewpoint)
Onyx Jewelry Factory (Mostly for souvenirs and shopping)

5. Riding the ATV through the fairy chimney valleys

We drove through numerous fairy chimney valleys which included 3 main pit stop : Sword Valley, Love Valley and Pigeon Valley. We went for an ATV ride on our third day at Cappadocia. During our trip, as we reached higher altitude the temperature dropped to 2 degree celsius, also it rained that day. If this is your first time in Türkiye please note, the winters in Türkiye can be unpredictable. The weather can get quite cold especially when it rains.

6. Exploring Uchisar and Ortahisar castles and the village

Going all the way up to the top of Ortahisar and Uchisar castles is a great way to get some amazing panoramic views of the surroundings.

Göreme Village- view from Mithra Cave Hotel

Uchisar Castle

Stroll through the small town of Ortahisar

7. Visit to “Galerie Ikman”

If you are on instagram, there is a high chance you might have come across pictures with these beautiful rugs in the backdrop. Most of those pictures were shot here in Galerie Ikman Antique Rug Store. We usually avoid visiting insta-famous spots only to avoid the crowds. This was a surprise ending to our trip. It was our last day at Cappadocia and we were out strolling through the streets of Goreme when we came across this store. Since we had travelled during the off season we were surprised to find the carpet store with no crowd at all. That’s when we decided to do a photoshoot here. Galerie Ikman and his family run the shop. We had a brief talk with him, he offered us turkish tea and told us about the different patterns they use in their rugs. There is a nominal charge, if you wish to take photographs inside his shop (Charges could vary between 50-150 Turkish Lira)