Apart from hot air balloons, ever heard about hiking in Cappadocia?
The unique, rocky landscape of Cappadocia is a result of volcanic eruption millions of years ago, leaving behind a thick layer of soft rock – where locals call them tufa. Today, the numerous pinnacle and chimney formations we see are the remnants of those that have survived from erosion over time.
Hiking in Cappadocia really is an eye-opening experience. It gives you the chance to explore the interesting landscape by foot and learn to appreciate the history of this World Heritage site.
I’ll be sharing on my hiking experience in Cappadocia and some useful tips+map below.
Hiking Trail : Red Valley & Rose Valley
Duration : 2 – 3 hours
Starting off from Red Valley
We got a local driver to drop us off at the starting point of Red Valley where we started our hike here towards Rose Valley and ended at Cavusin village.
The rock formation at Red Valley are in layers of red hues as the name says. At different times of the day, you will see different gradient of colours due to the effect of sunlight. Don’t you think this looks a little like the scene in Lion King?
Most of the time, this hiking trail remains at the top of the valley so you’ll be able to get a great view of this beautiful landscape as you go along.
During ancient times, people realised the uses of tufa as they could carve into these rocks due to its softness. They began to transform these rocks into amazing structures – caves, churches, homes and even built underground cities as hideout. If you have time, you must visit one of the largest underground cities in Cappadocia such as Derinkuyu or Kaymakli Underground City. Really amazing to learn how humans have developed and lived here in the past.
CROSS CHURCH
After about 30 minutes hike, you will come to a small cafe and Cross Church (Haçlı Kilise). You can order a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice or tea to chill at the café.
Go pass the café and you’ll find the entrance to Cross Church which is famed for its well-preserved frescoes and a large cross on its ceiling. This church is believed to have existed since the 9th century.
rose valley to cavusin village
From Cross Church, walk a little further and you’ll see trail markers directing you to Rose Valley. If you decide not to go any further, you could always complete the Red Valley loop and return to where you started hiking.
Going towards Rose Valley, you will notice that the rock formations are lighter in colour compared to those at Red Valley. Red Valley and Rose Valley are also well-known for their sunset panorama view so do plan your hike in the afternoon if you wish to catch the stunning sight. Both valleys have sunset viewpoints and shops serving tea while you enjoy the view.
At the end of Rose Valley, we continued to walk about 20 minutes to get to Çavuşin village to catch our ride back to Goreme.
The entire hike was about 3 hours, mostly stones and sandy terrain. I would say that it’s a fairly simple trail with just a few steeper slopes but nothing too challenging.
To be honest, I wasn’t very excited initially at the idea of hiking for hours looking at rock formations. However, I was glad that I did it because it actually turned out to be the highlight of my trip in Cappadocia! The landscape is just so gorgeous and the colours made them even more stunning.
tips and map:
There are many different hiking routes in Cappadocia and this is the route that I went on:
Along the way, there are trail markers but some of them are not so clear – faded wordings or written in Turkish.
Google Maps turned out to be very helpful to make sure that we were going in the right direction.
Getting Around
We were introduced to a local driver who drove us around Cappadocia including dropping us off for hiking. Claimed to be the only female tourist driver in Cappadocia, her family owns a restaurant in town where she picked up fluent English. She is really friendly and great in recommending places to visit around Cappadocia. If you need her contact, feel free to drop me a message!
Sunscreen!
There are hardly any big trees to provide shade along the trail so remember to put on sunscreen to avoid getting sun burnt.
Happy hiking and feel free to check out my other articles on Turkey travelling!