Goreme Off The Beaten Path Tips by MalenaN Top 5 Page for this destination

Fairy Chimneys

In a valley between Avanos and Göreme you find these fairy chimneys. The darker stone on the top is harder than the stone below and has not been as much erroded. It looks like hats, mushroom hats. It is an amazing landscape!

Agzikara Hani

Along the road between Aksaray and Nevsehir there are a few caravanserais (or ruins of them).
On the Ilhara-tour I took from Göreme we stopped at Agzikara Hani, which is the best preserved of them. It was built during the 1230s. Entering the courtyard there is a mosque. Around are the rooms for the traders and animals.

Avanos

Avanos is a town north of Göreme, famous for its pottery. If you are going on a tour you will probably make a stop at one of the workshops.
When I went on the Ihlara-tour from Göreme one stop was at a pottery workshop in Avanos. The pottery is handpainted and can be very nice. In the shop I visited there were different rooms depending on the cuality of the pottery. I can tell you that in the most expensive room there were many beautiful things.

Selime Monastery

North of Ihlara, cut in the rocks, is Selim Monastery. It is a complex with several rooms. The church has a gallery and you can climb some stairs to the upper gallery in one room.
The rocks are more cone shaped here than in Göreme.
Some people say that this place was used when making the Star Wars film, but it is not true.

Churches in Ihlara Valley

In many of the churches of Ihlara Valley there are well preserved old frescos, some dating from the 10th and 13th century.
The fresco in the picture is from the first church you come to when you walk down the steps from the resthouse, close to Ihlara Village.

Walking in the valley

The green valley makes a nice contrast to the surronding planes and it is a perfect place for a nice walk. You can make it a full day and walk all the way between Selime Monastery to Ihlara village, while you take your time to have a look in all the chuches and stop for lunch at a restaurant by the river.
If you, like me, visit on a daytour from Göreme you will probably make a shorter walk from Ihlara village to Belisirma and only visit one or two churches.

Ihlara Valley

Ihlara Valley is a 10 km long gorge, southeast of Aksaray. The valley is full of rock cut churches, but only a dozen of them are open to the public. Several of them have well preserved paintings. It is a green gorge with a stream, Melendiz Suyu, running along it. It is a nice place for trekking.