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Cappadocia is widely known for its stunningly rugged landscape. But over the past few years, it has become synonymous with hot air ballooning. It’s because of its unique landscape and perfect weather conditions all year round.
You can hardly find a place in the world with so many balloons taking over the sky so often, and that’s why Capadoccia is so magical. There are over 150 balloons flying simultaneously.
Hot air balloons can fly super low or they can go high up to 1000 meters. And experienced pilots are already so good and precise at flying that they can go just centimeters away from trees or rocks, especially in Cappadocia.
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Cappadocia is a part of central Turkey. Eruptions of several volcanoes (e.g. Erciyes Dag, Hasan Dag) had covered the area with tuff. Erosion dug valleys and created an uncountable number of different shaped rocks. The tuff's ability to store water made the valleys much more fertile than the higher surroundings. After the arrival of the first people, they soon started to dig caves into the soft stone. By the time they developed the ability to dig cities into the underground with tunnels of several kilometers. A sophisticated pipe- and tunnel-system cared for fresh air and water, to enable the people to hide from enemies for a long time. In the 5th century hermits started to settle in the valleys and to paint their caves. In the next centuries more and more hermits and monks arrived and a rich cave-architecture with colourfull wallpaintings developed. The most famous are the churches of Goereme and the Peristrema Valley (=Ihlara Valley) between Ihlara and Selime. Today thousands of tourists from all over the world are visiting the area.
