The area of Cappadocia in Turkey’s central Anatolian province of Nevşehir, world famous for its chimney-shaped rock formations, is increasingly attracting more tourists.
The region was visited by 874,911 tourists in 2009 between January and July and hosted 1.1 million tourists in the same period this year. 776,531 of this year’s visitors were foreigners, according to figures from the Nevşehir governorship’s provincial directorate of culture and tourism.
The most visited tourist sites in the region are the underground cities of Zelve Paşabağları, Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu, the Hacıbektaş Veli Museum and the Göreme Outdoor Museum in Göreme National Park, which was designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 1985.
A great majority of foreign visitors are reportedly from Japan and other countries in the Far East.
Last year, some 567,531 foreigners visited the region and it is predicted that more than 2 million tourists will have visited Cappadocia by the end of the year.
Other popular tourist sites in the area include the ruins at Mustafapaşa, Gülşehir Açıksaray and Zelve, the churches of Çavuşin, El Nazar, Karanlık and Gülşehir St. Jean, the Archaeology and Ethnography museums at Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Hacıbektaş, Hacıbektaş Atatürk House, Hacıbektaş Veli Museum, and the underground cities at Kaymaklı, Derinkuyu, Tatlarin and Özkonak.
Source: Hurriyet [August 17, 2010]