Landscape of the Moon

In the centre of Anatolia lies the attractive and intriguing landscape of Cappadocia.The rocks here are pink, white and grey volcanic ash, of varying hardness, exuded from the volcanoes of Hassan Dag and its neighbours many millions of years ago. The ash has been sculpted into fretted valleys and buttressed pinnacles, giving a surreal atmosphere to the countryside, and the fascination is further deepened by successive troglodytes burrowing deep into the soft rock to carve out houses, barns, churches and even whole cities underground.

Ancient Byzantine Churches

The Göreme valley is a whimsical landscape of pink and white “fairy chimneys”, vast pinnacles of eroded volcanic ash. This whole area was the centre of a late Byzantine community and today preserves some of the finest Byzantine frescoes in Turkey, some virtually unaffected by the passage of time. There are no fewer than 350 churches and monasteries hewn out of the soft ash, painted in vibrant colours with saints of the eastern church – St George, St Nicholas, and the ever-strange hermaphrodite St Onuphrios. A visit to Göreme can be complemented with a day trip to the Ihlara Valley, again with incredible churches and frescoes.

Hittite Museum

If time allows, why not fly into Ankara at the same time and see the world famous Hittite Museum. It is not only the Hittites, than all-powerful but elusive Bronze Age empire, which is celebrated here. The Museum has exhibits of all the periods of Anatolian history and archaeology, including Neolithic Çatal Höyük.