CAPPADOCIA BY BUS
Breakfast, dinner at the hotel + entrance tickets
A unique place on Earth with an incredibly stunning landscape is located in modern-day Turkey. This is a vast open-air museum. Once, volcanoes erupted here, covering the ground with a massive layer of lava. Over millions of years, wind and rain transformed these lava layers into a landscape with peculiar shapes, and people built underground cities and churches here.
Goreme Open-Air Museum — this museum can rightly be called the most popular complex in Cappadocia, bringing together many churches. The Goreme National Park and Cappadocia’s cave dwellings are on the UNESCO World Heritage list in Turkey.
Underground Cities in Cappadocia — settlements carved into soft rock or underground. Cappadocia’s tuff is soft and easy to work with, making it convenient to carve out caves. It was here that the first Christians hid from persecution. The first underground cities were discovered in the 19th century. Today, six of them are known, but there may be more.
Fairy Chimneys — or Peri Bacaları (Peribacaları) — are stone pillars with peculiar shapes that resemble mushrooms. The base of these “mushrooms” consists of tuff, while the top part is basalt.
Hot Air Balloon Ride — one of the traditions of Cappadocia. In the mornings, numerous hot air balloons rise into the sky. The sky comes alive, filled with dozens of colorful hues. This sight can only be seen in Cappadocia, Turkey.
The Whirling Dervishes’ Dance — a mystical dance of the whirling dervishes connected to the Mevlevi Sufi order. During the dance, the dervish holds his right hand facing the sky and his left towards the ground, symbolizing receiving divine grace from the heavens and passing it through himself. The dervishes feel as if they’re between heaven and earth, neither in the world of the living nor the dead. Even their traditional attire carries symbolic meaning: they enter wearing black cloaks representing burial shrouds, with white robes underneath symbolizing the shroud of the deceased, and a tall felt hat representing a tombstone. In the final part of the dance, the dervishes fall to their knees, symbolizing enlightenment.
ITINERARY
---Day One---
Departure from hotel: 3:00–5:00 AM (time varies by hotel)
Stop for breakfast
Serhatli Underground City
Lunch
Uchisar Castle
Goreme Viewpoint
Monks Valley
Pink Valley
Town of Avanos
---Day Two---
Rock Churches
Valley of Love
Lunch
Return to hotel
Included in the price:
Not included in the price:
