Devrent and Monk's Valleys, Avanos, Goreme Open Air Museum, Uchisar Castle
You will be picked up from your Cappadocia hotel at around 09:30 to join a small group for your full day guided tour of Cappadocia’s northern region.
Your tour will begin by making a stop to take in the landscape of Devrent Valley after which you will view the striking fairy chimneys and other rock formations in the Monk’s Valley, where you will also see a chapel dedicated to the well known reclusive monk, St. Simeon as well as some small cave habitations that were carved and used by monks one thousand years ago. In Avanos, an artistic center that dates to Hittite occupation some 3500 years ago, you will have the opportunity to witness potters at their wheels. The red clay found at the Kizilirmak River, along the banks of which the village is located, has been used since the times of the Hittites to make functional and ornamental pottery. After a lunch break, you will move on to visit the Goreme Open-Air Museum where you will marvel at the numerous cave churches and monasteries with their richly frescoed walls painted by Orthodox Monks around 1000-1200 AD. See also the Uchisar Castle. Situated at the highest point in Cappadocia and providing superb panoramic vistas, it is a large rock formation full of interconnected rooms, stairs, tunnels and passages that have been carved from the tufa. Scattered throughout the immediate surroundings are several Roman tombs also cut from the tufa.
After the tour, at about 17:30, you will be returned to your hotel.
