Cappadocia: Uchisar

Uçhisar is a troglodyte village situated 4 km east of Göreme. It is famous for the huge rock formation once used as a fortification. This extraordinary rock is the highest peak in the region and offers a magnificent panoramic view of the whole of Cappadocia with Mt. Erciyes in the distance.

The Citadel, carved out and tunnelled by the cave-dwellers of the past, and concealed from view and used for defence purposes, has now been destroyed by erosion, revealing the inner honeycombed architecture. A secret tunnel from the castle to the river bed 100 m below, hewn out in order to provide the water supply in the event of siege, has been recently discovered.

In the Pigeon Valley in the south of Uçhisar there are the best example of the pigeon-houses in Cappadocia.