Things to do in Güzelyurt

Güzelyurt sits about 1 h 15 from Göreme, on the far side of Ihlara Valley, and it is a stone village rather than a fairy-chimney site. Founded as the Greek-Orthodox town of Karvala, it kept its stone houses and its churches after the 1923 population exchange, when its Greek residents left for Greece and Muslim families arrived from there in return.

The centre still has vaulted stone houses built into the rock, some still lived in, alongside monastery buildings and rock-cut churches from that Orthodox past. There is no ticketed circuit here and no fairy chimneys to photograph; this is a place to walk the old quarter for half an hour to an hour, ideally as an add-on after Ihlara Valley or Selime rather than a separate half-day trip from Göreme.

Bring cash, since card machines are unreliable in the village shops and cafés.