Turkey Guide
South Central Anatolia
The central Anatolian plateau seems at first sight to be an unpromising prospect. A large area around the lake of Tuz Gölü is virtual desert, while much of the central plateau is steppe, suitable only for the grazing of livestock. During summer, water is scarce except in the river valleys and in areas that have been artificially irrigated, and in winter the region is blitzed by cold and heavy snowfall.
Turkey's Lakeland, the region south of Afyon and west of Konya, has been largely ignored by the Turkish tourist industry. Stretches of azure and silver waters stand out against the grey plateau, or appear suddenly between mountains to startling effect.Further east, the area between the extinct volcanoes of Erciyes Dağ and the Melendiz range is Cappadocia, whose legacy of compacted lava-ash soil is favourable to vine growing and horse breeding. Water and wind have created a land of fantastic forms from the soft rock known as tuff, including forests of cones, table mountains, canyon-like valleys and castle-rocks, all further hewn and shaped by civilizations that have found the region particularly sympathetic to their needs. It became an important crossroads and home to a politically autonomous state between the third and first centuries BC. From the seventh to the eleventh centuries AD, it was a place of refuge during Arab and Turkish invasions into the steppe. Today its churches and dwellings carved from the rock, particularly by monastic communities, and its unearthly landscapes make an irresistible tourist draw.
Highlights
1 Eğirdir Eat fillets of crisply fried lake-fish as the sun sets over Lake Eğirdir.
2 Whirling dervishes, Konya Watch the dervishes whirl each December in their spiritual home.
3 Göreme Open-Air Museum The frescoes inside Göreme's cave-churches are a vibrant reminder of the region's Christian past.
4 Mustafapaşa One of Cappadocia's most attractive villages sports a wonderful concentration of old Greek houses.