Cappadocia

A region of "fairy chimney" rock formations and cave dwellings, famous for sunrise balloon flights.

Visitors especially love the early morning, when many hot-air balloons float over the valleys at sunrise. The region sits on a high plateau, more than 1,000 metres above sea level, with hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters. It is also known as a centre of early Christian learning, with hundreds of churches and monasteries.

How the rocks formed

The landscape comes from thick layers of volcanic ash and rock, thrown out by ancient eruptions of Mount Erciyes, Mount Hasan and Göllüdağ. Over millions of years wind and water wore these soft rocks into fairy chimneys and other shapes.

Places like Ortahisar and Uçhisar are made of harder layers that wore away more slowly, so they stayed standing tall and were later used for rock-cut castles. In 2022 the IUGS included the Cappadocian ignimbrite sequence in its list of 100 geological heritage sites.

Cities underground

Over the centuries, people dug underground cities to hide from danger, including during periods of persecution. Derinkuyu is one famous example, with many levels carved straight into the rock.

Hundreds of churches and monasteries, such as those at Göreme and Ihlara, were also cut into the stone, and some still have painted walls.

Name and history

The name Cappadocia appears as early as the late 6th century BC, in inscriptions of the Persian kings Darius the Great and Xerxes I. Scholars think it may come from a Hittite phrase for "place below". In the late Bronze Age the area was the homeland of the Hittites.

After Alexander the Great, a ruler named Ariarathes declared himself king and the Kingdom of Cappadocia grew as far as the Black Sea. Today the word is used worldwide as a tourism name for the region's natural wonders.

On the globe

The model shows cone-shaped rock towers and cave homes with balloons in the sky. Look for the 'fairy chimneys'.