Routes İÇ ANADOLU

Nevşehir – Kayseri Rotası (Kapadokya)

Between fairy chimneys and underground cities

DISTANCE: 84 km
DRIVING TIME: 1 h 18 min

The Kapadokya crossing: underground cities, fairy chimneys and balloon country, with the cultural and geological stops spread along the whole line.

A corridor of fairy chimneys, rock churches and underground cities cut into volcanic tuff: “Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia” has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1985, and the region is the ballooning capital of Türkiye — up to 105 balloons lift on the morning slot under the civil aviation cap. At the western end are the pottery of Avanos, thrown from Kızılırmak clay, and the rock-cellar vineyards of Ürgüp; at the eastern end, under Erciyes, Kayseri and its trio of pastırma, sucuk and mantı.

What to eat

Testi kebabı
meat and vegetables sealed inside a clay pot with dough, baked for hours and cracked open at the table
Avanos, Göreme, Uçhisar and Ürgüp; the pot is Avanos ware, and most places want the order at least 2 hours ahead
Ürgüp köftesi (kıymaya rendelenmiş patates ve irmik katılıp kızartılan köfte) ve Ürgüp tarhana çorbası
meatballs bound with grated potato and semolina and then fried, and a sour soup of dried yoghurt-and-grain tarhana
In the stone-house restaurants of Ürgüp
Kabak çekirdekli erişte
hand-cut noodles toasted in butter with pumpkin seeds — a Nevşehir dish and nothing like a pasta course
Peculiar to Nevşehir; served at the village tables along the Nevşehir-Ürgüp stretch
Kayseri mantısı, yağlama ve kâğıtta pastırma
mantı are tiny meat dumplings under garlic yoghurt; yağlama is layered flatbread with meat; pastırma is air-dried beef under a paste of fenugreek and garlic, sliced paper-thin
Central Kayseri; at breakfast, have the pastırma with eggs
Develi cıvıklısı
a thin-based pide spread with minced meat and baked in a wood oven; nevzine is a nutty syrup cake, and gilaburu juice is pressed from a sour red berry
Develi (Kayseri)

What to buy

Avanos çömleği ve seramiği
earthenware and glazed ceramics thrown from the red clay of the Kızılırmak riverbed
Avanos; the workshops in town will put you at the wheel to try it yourself
Nevşehir kabak çekirdeği
pumpkin seeds, roasted and salted — the local snack, sold by weight
A protected designation of origin (no. 415); ask the nut sellers in Ürgüp and Nevşehir for the milk-roasted (“sütlü”) kind, and take grape molasses and köftür with it
Nevşehir çömlek peyniri
a cheese matured inside a sealed clay pot, sharp and crumbling
The cheesemongers and delicatessens around Cami Kebir Caddesi and the butchers’ market in central Nevşehir
Kapadokya şarabı
wine from vines grown in volcanic soil and cellared in rock-cut caves
Turasan in central Ürgüp and Kocabağ in Uçhisar, whose cellars are cut into the rock (there is an Ürgüp outlet too); try Emir, the local white grape
Kayseri pastırması ve sucuğu
pastırma is air-dried beef in a fenugreek crust; sucuk is a firm spiced sausage — the two things the city is known for
The delicatessens in the Kapalıçarşı and Kazancılar Çarşısı around Cumhuriyet Meydanı; ask for a vacuum pack for the road. For carpets, the registered Bünyan handloom rug comes from Bünyan district

Road notes

Balloons start lifting about 30 minutes before sunrise: 04:45-05:30 in summer, 06:15-07:00 in winter. To watch, take your spot on the Göreme-Çavuşin-Uçhisar roads at least half an hour before take-off; afterwards the viewpoint car parks fill and the narrow roads queue.
For sunset, the Kızılçukur valley — between Ortahisar and Çavuşin, 1 km from Çavuşin. The viewing terrace has a large car park you can drive to, but there is a charge at the entrance. Take your place 30-40 minutes before the sun goes, and expect a crush on the way out, because everyone leaves at once.
The valleys and walking areas (Aşk Vadisi, Kızılçukur) are free; the charge is for vehicles at the viewing terraces and their car parks. The ground is uneven — shoes with grip are essential.
At the Göreme open-air museum the Turkish Müzekart is valid, but the Karanlık Kilise needs a separate ticket. Confirm the current opening hours on muze.gov.tr before you set off; the ticket office closes before the museum does.
Do not fly a drone: this is both a national park and an active balloon airspace. Devices over 500 g need civil aviation registration and a flight permit, and inside the protected area a site-management permit as well; flying without one carries a fine.
Crossing to Kayseri: the D300 by way of Ürgüp and İncesu is the shortest at about 70 km and 1 hour 10 minutes, mostly dual carriageway. In winter chains or winter tyres are needed on the Erciyes and highland turn-offs, and the day-night temperature swing is wide — on a motorcycle, dress in layers.

Along the way

Avanos
the pottery town on the Kızılırmak, where the red river clay has been thrown for centuries
Paşabağ
the “monks’ valley”: fairy chimneys with two and three caps, some hollowed into hermit cells
Zelve
an abandoned cave village of dwellings, churches and a mill dug into the cliff, inhabited until the 1950s
Çavuşin
a village between the valleys with a 5th-century basilica, and one of the best places to stand under the balloons at dawn
Göreme
the open-air museum of rock-cut churches with Byzantine frescoes, and the village that grew around it
Ortahisar
a town built around a tall rock citadel, with cold-storage caves still used for lemons and potatoes
Ürgüp
the wine town of the region, with rock-cut cellars and stone houses on the slope
Kaymaklı Yeraltı Şehri
an underground city of eight levels where villagers sheltered with their animals behind rolling stone doors
Derinkuyu Yeraltı Şehri
the deepest of the underground cities — some 85 m down, with ventilation shafts, wells and a church

Itinerary

The route passes through 12 named stops. The line between them is the routed road geometry the map draws — and the distance was measured off that line.

Nevşehir merkez
Göreme kavşağı
Avanos
Sarıhıdır (Ürgüp)
Bozca (Avanos)
Karahüyük (İncesu)
Üçkuyu (İncesu)
İncesu kavşağı
Örenşehir (İncesu)
Saraycık / Boğazköprü kavşağı
Anbar (Melikgazi)
Kayseri merkez

Directions in Google Maps

Sources

8 SOURCES

This record is the counterpart of the route card on İz's Explore screen. The whole shelf, and how it was compiled, is on the route shelf. İz is not open to everyone yet; it lives inside the OtoTasdik vehicle wallet app.