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.
169 km from Ürgüp to Ürgüp, about 3 h 05 of riding. The stops in between: Soganli site, Subterranean city of Kaymakli and back through Soganli site. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 27 km this is Turkey Cappadocia Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 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 about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Subterranean city of Kaymakli.
Kaymakli sits in the soft volcanic country of Cappadocia, about eleven kilometres from Derinkuyu and eighteen from Nevşehir, and from the road you would never guess what is under your wheels. The village is ordinary: flat-roofed houses, tractors, a few carpet shops. The wonder is below, a city dug downward into tuff, the pale rock that ash from ancient volcanoes pressed into something a person can cut with a hand tool and that hardens with air.
Read the complete Subterranean city of Kaymakli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 84 km into the recorded legs you reach Subterranean city of Kaymakli. 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 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 at Yesilöz site. That is the ride.
Yesilöz site → Soganli site is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Soganli site → Subterranean city of Kaymakli is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Subterranean city of Kaymakli → back through Soganli site is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Soganli site → Yesilöz site is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.