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.
178 km from Göreme to Göreme, about 3 h 07 of riding. It goes by way of Karain site, Soganli site and back through Karain site. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,500 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 25 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 Karain site.
Cappadocia is a land that was made by volcanoes and then carved by people. Millions of years ago, the eruptions of Mount Erciyes, which still stands at 3,917 metres, and other volcanoes covered the high plateau of central Anatolia with deep layers of ash, which hardened into a soft rock called tuff. Wind and water then eroded the tuff into valleys of pinnacles, cones and ridges, the fairy chimneys, and people found that the rock was easy to dig. Ever since, they have been carving houses, churches, stables and storerooms into it.
Read the complete Karain site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Karain site comes up about 25 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 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Soganli site. Next is back through Karain site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Karain site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Karain 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 → Karain site is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Karain site → Soganli site is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Soganli site → back through Karain site is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Karain site → Göreme National Park is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.