Ihlara Valley Without a Tour — Ihlara Village to Belisırma and Selime

Everything else on this site is dry tuff, pink cliffs and no shade. Ihlara is the opposite: a green river canyon in Aksaray province, up to 150 metres deep, where you walk beside running water under poplars and willows past scores of rock-cut Byzantine churches. Most visitors see it for an hour in the middle of a Green Tour day. Walkers should see it for a day, and this guide explains how to do that without the tour — using only what the Ihlara Valley page, the churches page and the valley data say, because independent transport here is the one thing we cannot improve on with a map.

The canyon in three sections

The Melendiz river has cut the gorge about 15 km long between the village of Ihlara at the south-eastern end and Selime at the north-western, with Belisırma about halfway. Our GPS track from Ihlara village to Selime measures 11.3 km, 388 m of ascent and 589 m of descent, about 5.3 hours; it is graded moderate for its length and the stairs rather than for any difficulty of the path, which is near-flat on the canyon floor.

Ihlara village to Belisırma. The classic stretch. From the north end of the village a staircase of roughly 400 steps drops over 100 m to the river, and the densest cluster of churches is in the first few kilometres: Ağaçaltı (the "church under the trees", with its Daniel-between-the-lions fresco) near the foot of the stairs, then Sümbüllü, Kokar and — the one nobody forgets — Yılanlı, the Serpent Church, with its Last Judgement painted around the year 900. The churches page suggests walking this stretch early, ahead of the tour groups, and finishing with lunch beside the river; the Ihlara page's highlights include the wooden platforms set over the water at Belisırma.

Belisırma to Selime. Quieter, longer, and the part the tours skip. The path stays with the river, the cliffs open out, and the walk ends beneath Selime Monastery, the largest rock-cut religious complex in Cappadocia. The elevation data shows more up-and-down here than the first half; the valley data describes river-stones, tree roots, mud and several stepping-stone or footbridge crossings, so wear proper trail shoes.

Or Belisırma as the pivot. The churches page notes that the Belisırma access point is step-free, which makes it the place to start if the stairs are a problem, or the place to turn round if you have walked in from Ihlara village and want a shorter day. It is also the natural lunch stop whichever way you are going.

Shade and water

The data lists Ihlara's shade as partial and its water as abundant, and both need a sentence of explanation. The shade is real on the canyon floor — poplars, willows, almond and walnut along the river — but there are open stretches, and the valley warnings note that midsummer canyon-floor temperatures are high in the sun. Start early in July and August. The water is the river, which runs the whole way and is not for drinking; the warnings are explicit that you carry 1.5–2 litres and refill only at the cafés at Ihlara, Belisırma and Selime. Treat the Melendiz, as the churches page puts it, as scenery, not supply.

The pay-off is that this is the one walk on the site that works at midday in summer. The when-to-walk guide puts it with Zemi and Meskendir as the hot-month valleys, and May, June, September and October as the best of all.

What to see on the way

• The churches. Around fifty are well known, among the remains of many more, painted between about the 7th and 13th centuries in two waves — an older, Syrian-influenced group at Ağaçaltı and Kokar, and an 11th-century group in metropolitan Byzantine style at Ala and Karagedik. Interiors are dim with uneven floors: bring a torch and, for the frescoes, patience rather than flash. The churches page has the full account and the audio guide.
• The river. Kingfishers, grey herons, frogs, terrapins and dragonflies; the greenery peaks in spring and the river is fullest then.
• The geology. The gorge is cut through stacked volcanic ash and rimmed by hard, dark lavas from Hasandağ, which is why the walls are so sheer and the floor so shaded.
• Selime. The cathedral-sized cliff complex at the far end, worth the second half of the walk on its own.

Getting there without a tour

This is the honest part. Ihlara is about 1.5 hours from Göreme by road, about 40 km south of Aksaray, and the valley data says plainly that there is no dolmuş to the trailhead. The pages on this site describe two independent options:

1. Drive. The churches page gives the route as via Aksaray or Güzelyurt, entering at Ihlara village, the main stairway or Belisırma. A hire car turns the one-way problem into a shuttle problem — you still need to get back to the car — which is why many independent walkers do Ihlara village to Belisırma and back, or leave the car at Belisırma and walk both directions from there.
2. Bus to Aksaray, then a local dolmuş. The Ihlara page describes this route for independent travellers. It is a chain of connections and we have not been able to verify current frequencies from any operator page, so ask at your hotel or at the Göreme bus station the day before, and do not plan a tight day around it.

Either way, the return is the thing to arrange first. The valley warnings say transport back from Selime or Belisırma is awkward — there is no Göreme bus — and recommend arranging a return taxi in advance. A driver booked to meet you at Selime at an agreed time is the difference between a good day and a long evening.

If all of that is more than you want, the itineraries page pairs Ihlara with an underground city on a Green Tour day, and the Ihlara-to-Belisırma stretch inside that day is still the best hour of walking on the itinerary.

Where to sleep nearby

The churches page notes guesthouses in Ihlara village, Belisırma and Güzelyurt. Staying a night on this side of the region solves the transport question entirely: walk the canyon in the morning from your door, and add Derinkuyu or Kaymaklı, which are on the same side of Cappadocia, on the way back.

Before you go

• Proper trail shoes, for the stairs, the river-stones and the mud after rain.
• 1.5–2 litres of water and a lunch, unless you are timing Belisırma for it.
• A torch for the churches.
• A check on the weather: the valley warnings note flash-flood and high-water risk after heavy rain or early-spring snowmelt, when the crossings rise. The churches page adds that winter can ice the long stairways.
• A return arranged before you descend the first step.