CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 155 km round trip from Derinkuyu - roughly 2 h 57 in the saddle. The stops in between: Soganli site, Yesilöz site and back through Soganli site. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 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 17 km this is Turkey Cappadocia Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Derinkuyu means deep well, and the town above the underground city is named for it. Beneath the plain of Cappadocia, south of Nevşehir, people have carved a maze of tunnels, rooms, stables, kitchens, chapels, wine presses and storerooms to a depth of some sixty metres, over many levels, though only the upper eight or so are open to visitors. At its busiest the city could shelter thousands of people along with their animals and food stores. Large round stone doors, shaped like millstones, could be rolled across the passages from the inside to block intruders, and narrow shafts supplied air and water, so that a community could live below ground for months.
Read the complete Subterranean city of Derinkuyu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Subterranean city of Derinkuyu is where the day begins. 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.
Soganli site comes up 21 km in. 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.
42 km in you reach Yesilöz site. Next is back through Soganli site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Soganli site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Soganli site, late in the day. Next is Subterranean city of Derinkuyu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Subterranean city of Derinkuyu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Subterranean city of Derinkuyu. That is the ride.
Subterranean city of Derinkuyu → Soganli site is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Soganli site → Yesilöz site is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yesilöz site → back through Soganli site is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Soganli site → Subterranean city of Derinkuyu is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.