Devrent Valley (Imagination Valley)

Located a short drive east of Göreme, Devrent Valley—universally known as 'Imagination Valley' (Hayal Vadisi)—features one of the most playful and surreal landscapes in the world. Unlike almost every other valley in Cappadocia, Devrent was never inhabited by humans; there are no rock-cut churches, Roman tombs, or cave hermitages. Instead, it is an open-air sculpture gallery created entirely by millions of years of wind, rain, and thermal fracturing acting upon soft volcanic ignimbrite tuff. The rock formations take on mind-bogglingly recognizable animal and anthropomorphic silhouettes: the famous crouching camel, dancing dolphins, seals, a mother holding her child, and a rock resemblance of Napoleon’s bicorne hat. Visitors meander up the unpaved dry riverbeds letting their imaginations roam across the pink-tinted geological wonderland, which glows with extraordinary chromatic intensity during late-afternoon sunlight.