Uçhisar Rock Castle & Citadel

Perched dramatically at the highest elevation in the Cappadocian plateau, Uçhisar Castle (Uçhisar Kalesi) is a monolithic 60-meter-high volcanic rock outcrop that has functioned as an impregnable natural fortress since Byzantine times. Visible for tens of kilometers, the crag resembles a giant natural honeycomb, having been relentlessly hollowed out by generations of inhabitants into an intricate network of interconnected rooms, tunnels, stairs, and lookouts. During times of danger, local villagers retreated inside the hollowed citadel to defend themselves with rolling stone doors. While erosion has exposed some of the interior rooms into cliff-face caverns, climbing the exterior steps to the summit reward travelers with a jaw-dropping 360-degree vista: the fairy chimneys of Pigeon Valley, the white undulating waves of Love Valley, and the snowy volcanic pyramid of Mount Erciyes on the eastern horizon.