CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 200 km round trip from Göreme - roughly 3 h 26 in the saddle. It goes by way of Yesilöz site, Soganli site and back through Yesilöz site. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,500 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 28 km this is Turkey Cappadocia Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The national park around Göreme is the part of Cappadocia where the geology is most generous. Two great volcanoes, Erciyes and Hasan, buried the plateau in ash and lava millions of years ago, and the ash settled into a soft rock called tuff, which is cut by rivers and wind into valleys with names that sound invented: Love Valley, with its rows of phallic pillars, Rose Valley, which turns pink in the evening, Red Valley, Pigeon Valley and Sword Valley. Paths run through them, past orchards of apricot and apple, cave churches and the doorways of old dwellings, and on a good day you can hike for hours without meeting another person.
Read the complete Göreme National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Göreme National Park is where the day begins. Next is Yesilöz site.
Cappadocia was made by volcanoes and carved by people. Millions of years ago, the volcanoes of central Anatolia, Erciyes and Hasan, covered the plateau in thick layers of ash that hardened into a soft rock called tuff, and wind and water have since eroded it into the cones, pinnacles and ridges that are known as fairy chimneys. People found the rock easy to carve, and for thousands of years they have dug homes, churches, storerooms and whole underground cities into it. The area is a World Heritage site, and it is hard to find a corner without a cave or a dovecote cut into a cliff.
Read the complete Yesilöz site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yesilöz site comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Soganli site.
Soğanlı lies in a side valley of Cappadocia that most tour buses skip, south-east of Ürgüp and Yeşilhisar, on the slopes of the volcanic uplands. The name means with onions, which tells you something about the humble character of the place. The valley sides are made of soft volcanic tuff, which the local Christians carved out in the Byzantine centuries into churches, chapels, monasteries, and houses. Many of the rock churches date from the ninth to the thirteenth century and keep fragments of frescoes: Karabaş, the Yılanlı or Snake church, the Barbara church and others, whose names reflect old stories more than documented history.
Read the complete Soganli site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 90 km into the recorded legs you reach Soganli site. Next is back through Yesilöz site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yesilöz site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yesilöz site, late in the day. Next is Göreme National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Göreme National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Göreme National Park. That is the ride.
Göreme National Park → Yesilöz site is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yesilöz site → Soganli site is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Soganli site → back through Yesilöz site is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yesilöz site → Göreme National Park is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.