Unique underground cities in Cappadocia, one of the popular tourist centers of Turkey, in 2023 visited 1 million 495 thousand 210 tourists.
Cappadocia has a unique natural landscape. Cappadocia is, first of all, the Valley of Peribajalara (“Magic fireplaces” or “fireplaces”) and the remains in the form of stone pillars of bizarre forms and outlines.
In the territory of Cappadocia, there were previously existing volcanoes, the largest of which – Hassan, Erjes, Medendiz and Gylludag – once threw ash and lava. Over time, the ashes turned into tuff, and the lava into the basalt, which covered the soft tuff rock with a thin layer. Climate change in the region launched the work of other natural forces: precipitation, wind and rivers carved their patterns from the tuf.
Conducting a tour, tourists get the opportunity to see the natural beauty of the region from a bird’s eye view of a bird’s flight: the valley of peribajalara and carved in the rocks of the house and monasteries.
Tourists, in particular, are very popular with the underground cities of Cappadocia, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Many of them are cut down in a soft tuf, and their premises, designed for various purposes, are communicated to each other long corridors, walking along which tourists make a “journey into the past”.
Upland of Cappadocia served as an ideal refuge for the Hittites, who created their first settlements here. In soft volcanic rocks, they carved halls, arches and similar to the labyrinths of the tunnels, building churches, houses and stables here. The underground cities dated 3000-3500 years, expanded in the Roman and Byzantine periods, attract the attention of local and foreign tourists.
In 2023, the underground cities of Dirinki, Kaymakly, Ozkonak, Mazes, Tatlaryrin and Kayashekhir in Cappadocia visited 1 million 495 thousand 210 tourists.
The most tourists last year were visited by Kaymakla – 559 thousand 527 people.
The head of the Kaymakly district administration Harun Chekich said in an interview with an anadol correspondent that underground cities have made a great contribution to the development of tourism in Cappadocia.
Local authorities are making efforts to present the underground cities of the region at tourist fairs in Turkey and abroad, he said.
“Previously used as a shelter. After the region was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, turned into refrigerators, where people stored their products. Many civilizations lived here. The underground city includes a zone where people have public places, kitchen and kitchen and kitchen The places of departure of the cult. The underground city of Kaymakla annually visits more than half a million tourists, ”he added.