Kayseri / Capadoccia, Türkiye Community

Kayseri / Capadoccia, Turkey

Kayseri and Mount Erciyes by Sami Palta, Cappadocia Community

Take a map of Türkiye, fold it twice, look at the map, then you see folded dot, the center of the country shows a city: Kayseri and Cappadoccia area. It's geographical center of Türkiye. The gate between east and west of this large and colorful country.

Kayseri is situated on the slopes of Mount Argeus / Erciyes. The height of the once active volcano is 3916 m. Snow quality is very good for skiing and is possible to ski between November and March. Pists are moderate level and total length is around 2300 m.

Kayseri is a passage and on the road to the east or west of the country.

Very important landmark in Türkiye, the Kapuzbasi waterfalls between Kayseri-Nigde-Adana borders. Seven different waterfalls falls from 40-70 ms high. Nice place to see but the roads are unpaved after Yahyali. The distance of the falls to Cappadoccia area is around 130 kms. Road to Yahyali is good quality asphalt but after Yahyali, it is about 70 kms and poor qualitu off-road. It takes 3 hours to Kayseri and 2 hours to Yahyali. If it is too far to you there is Derebag/Kirazli waterfall very near to Yahyali. You must visit this one between March and May. Otherwise water amount is very little.

Kapuzbasi Waterfalls

Mount Aladag

One of the most beautiful peaks in Türkiye, Aladaglar (3756 ms) is near Çamardı - Nigde (120 kms from Kayseri and 70 kms from Cappadoccia area). It is possible to pass over the slopes of Aladaglar to Hacer Forests via lakes. If you keep up walking for one day, you reach to Kapuzbasi waterfalls.

Cappadoccia

Cappadoccia is very near only 50 kms to Kayseri.

Cappadoccia, which means "The Land of Fine Horses", is situated in the Nevsehir - Göreme province. During the early ages, besides its horses, it was famaous for its red ochre, ceramics and alabaster. The earth pillars consisting of volcanic tuffs add additional beauty to the landscape. During the Byzantine period some 360 churches and monastries were built by excavating these earth pillars, and their walls were decorated with religious paintings. Göreme has been declared a National Park and is on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.

Deep in the heart of Anatolia lies a world of powerful and strange, slightly unreal, beauty: a land of "fairy chimneys" and rock formations. It is one of the world's most surreal and picturesque landscapes all formed from a very soft, volcanic stone. The region is transformed as the sun moves across the sky and casts moving shadows on the dramatic sculptural forms.

Cappadoccia, as this region is known, has been inhabited continuously for at least 4,000 years. It has some 40 underground cities - some were big enough to house 30,000 people in times of danger. These extensive cities, tunnels that linked them and the countless caves carved into the soft, volcanic stone were ideal hiding spots for the (Eastern Orthodox) Christians who have inhabited Cappadoccia for the last 2,000 years.

Perhaps even more spectacular is the art inside the caves in which they dwelled and worshipped. The cave churches - there are nearly 1,000 in Cappadoccia - were carved by hand from solid rock. Artisans sculpted soaring domes and vaults, columns and other architectural ornamentation. They were then frescoed with elaborate representations of events from the Bible (many of which took place on Turkish soil). Most spectacular is the collection of 30 frescoed churches, over 1,000 years old, which comprise the Goreme Open Air Museum.