Derinkuyu underground city and Ihlara Valley

Derinkuyu is the deepest of Cappadocia's underground cities, dug into the soft rock over many centuries and used as a refuge by thousands of people with their animals and food stores. With a licensed guide the group goes down through stables, kitchens, wine presses, a chapel and ventilation shafts, and sees the round stone doors that sealed each level from inside.

We then drive forty minutes to Ihlara Valley, a 100-metre-deep canyon cut by the Melendiz river. The group walks about four kilometres along the river, stopping at the frescoed rock churches near the entrance, to the village of Belisırma for a trout lunch at tables set over the water.

On the way back we stop at Selime Monastery, the largest rock-cut complex in the region, which looks out over the end of the valley.