Cappadocia
Our favourite Avanos ceramic workshop is a bit of a local secret. Twins Levent and Mehmet create quirky contemporary ceramics that often riff on Anatolian themes and motifs but are quite unlike anything else in town.
To find it, from Taş Köprü (Avanos' old stone bridge) walk west up Atatürk Caddesi until it forks with Çavuş Sokak. Head a couple of metres up Çavuş Sokak and on your right you'll see an unsigned building with an archway and a large decorated disc on the stone wall.
4.47 MILES
The trails that loop around Güllüdere Vadısı (Rose Valley) are easily accessible to all levels of walkers and provide some of the finest fairy-chimney…
5.56 MILES
The highlight of Göreme Open-Air Museum is the stunning and fully restored Dark Church, famed for the vivid colours and excellent preservation of its…
5.47 MILES
This Unesco World Heritage site is an essential stop on any Cappadocian itinerary. First thought to be a Byzantine monastic settlement that housed some 20…
3.68 MILES
The road between Çavuşin and Avanos passes a turn-off to the Zelve Open-Air Museum, where three valleys of crumbling cave-habitations and churches…
18.48 MILES
Kaymaklı underground city features a maze of tunnels and rooms carved eight levels deep into the earth, though only four are open to the public. The…
4.73 MILES
One of the best views of Kızılçukur (Red) Valley's fang-like rock cones and wavy cliff ridges is from this lookout point, signposted off the highway,…
5.42 MILES
The Buckle Church is 50m back down the hill towards Göreme and across the road from the main Open-Air Museum complex, but is covered by the same entrance…
26.81 MILES
Let's get one thing straight: despite its science-fiction setting, no scene in Star Wars was ever filmed near Soğanlı. But don't despair Chewbacca fans;…
0.32 MILES
Avanos market is the best, and biggest, local produce market in the region. It's foodie central with market traders selling fresh honeycomb, slabs of…
0.42 MILES
This pottery gallery, in the alley opposite the post office, is home to Cappadocia's infamous hair museum. Yes, that's right: it's a museum dedicated to…
0.64 MILES
Touted as the only underground ceramics museum in the world, this vast series of modern tunnelled-out caves, underneath the Güray Ceramic showroom,…
2.98 MILES
This small valley, halfway along the turn-off road to Zelve, has a three-headed rock formation and some of Cappadocia's most famous examples of basalt…
3.12 MILES
Just off the highway on the northern edge of Çavuşin you'll find this church, accessed via a steep and rickety iron stairway. Cappadocia's first post…
6. Church of St John the Baptist
3.56 MILES
Right at the top of Çavuşin's village ruins rock outcrop is the Church of St John the Baptist, one of the oldest churches in Cappadocia. While the…
3.58 MILES
Carved into Çavuşin's craggy cliff face is a labyrinthine complex of abandoned houses that you can wander through by climbing up the short cliff path that…
3.61 MILES
Mehmet Ali has thrown open the door of his old family home (which they moved out of in the 1970s) so that visitors can get a taste of what Cappadocian…