This landscape was created many millions of years ago at the time when the two volcanic mountains, Erciyes Dagi and Hasan Dagi, covered a vast area with lava and dust.
The distinctive landscape of Cappadocia has for many many years attracted and surprised visitors from all over the world. Here you can see caves, cave houses, churches as well as whole underground villages. This landscape was created many millions of years ago at the time when the two volcanic mountains, Erciyes Dagi and Hasan Dagi, covered a vast area with lava and dust. Years of wind, rain and floods has created the most spectacular formations and figures which we are able to see and admire today.
Quite early on the inhabitants of this area discovered the dust was very fertile in and also that it was possible to carve this stone material. They therefore, over generations, made caves and storerooms in these rock formations and for this reason it has become one of Turkey's most distinctive sights.
The underground villages must be visited. There are about 20 villages which were established at the time of Christian persecution, around 200AD. There are as many as 10 levels underground.