6-Day Cappadocia & Mount Nemrut Trekking Tour (Private Tour): Göreme, Nemrut & Şanlıurfa

Highlights of the 6-Day Cappadocia & Mount Nemrut Trekking Tour

Combine the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia with the mountain-top gods of Nemrut on this active six-day private tour, arranged in-house by Inca Tour, a TURSAB-licensed operator since 2007. Travelling with your own English-speaking guide and vehicle at your own pace, you trek the valleys of Cappadocia before heading east to the UNESCO-listed summit of Mount Nemrut, the biblical city of Şanlıurfa and the beehive houses of Harran.

• Cappadocia — three days trekking the Göreme, Devrent, Paşabağ and Ihlara valleys, Derinkuyu underground city and Selime Monastery.
• Mount Nemrut — the 2,150 m summit where King Antiochus of Commagene raised colossal stone gods, watched at sunrise.
• Commagene sites — the Roman Cendere Bridge, the tumulus of Karakuş and the ruins of Arsameia.
• Şanlıurfa — the cave of the Prophet Abraham, the sacred carp pools of Balıklıgöl and the old covered bazaar.
• Harran — the ancient Mesopotamian town famed for its conical beehive houses.

The first three days are spent exploring Cappadocia on foot: the Göreme Open-Air Museum and the old village of Çavuşin, the lunar landscape of Devrent, the viewpoints of Esentepe and Zelve, the Damsa reservoir and the Soğanlı valley, followed by a descent into the Derinkuyu underground city and a walk through the Ihlara canyon to Belisırma and the clifftop Selime Monastery, with the finest fairy chimneys at Paşabağ.

On day four you cross the Taurus Mountains via the Seljuk Karatay caravanserai and the ice-cream city of Kahramanmaraş to reach Kahta, the base for Mount Nemrut. Before dawn the next morning you climb to the summit to watch the sun rise over the giant carved heads of Antiochus and his gods, then descend past Arsameia, the Roman Cendere Bridge and the Karakuş tumulus, pausing at the vast Atatürk Dam on the way to Şanlıurfa and its bazaar, Abraham's cave and the holy carp pools. The final day visits Harran's beehive houses before the drive back to Cappadocia, where the tour ends.

Comfortable cave hotels in Cappadocia and a hotel in Kahta, most meals, all guiding and entrance fees and air-conditioned transport are included. Prices are per person, shown for two sharing a double room; a light level of walking and some early starts are involved.