Uchisar Castle in Cappadocia

Uchisar is situated at the highest point in Cappadocia. If you stand at the top of the Uchisar Castle you can have a magnificent view of the area.  There are numerous underground passageways and rooms within as it served as residential areas for around 1,000 people during the Byzantine times.  It is no longer inhabited today.

This is how Uchisar Castle looks like from a distance. And that is all we did.  Watched it from a distance.

I found this photo shared on Archive in 2019 which showed how it looks at night.

Esentepe Village is located between Uchisar and Goreme.  From Esentepe Hill, we could see Uchisar Castle and Goreme which is the entry point to Pigeon Valley. 

Here is a tip for guides. Don't just use us to promote your travel agency when we take group photos. Take the trouble to name the place where we are taking the photo at. Include the date of our arrival there if possible. We will be more willing to hold placards from your company if they are relevant to places we visited.

We could view Uchisar Castle from the side, near the entrance of a sourvenir shop.

We could view the Pigeon Valley from the front.

What is the story behind Pigeon Valley?  Since ancient times, there have been thousands of pigeon coops carved into the soft tuff.  We have seen them at Tatlarin where I have shared that they were used as message carriers and kept as pets. Their droppings were used as fertilizer. Today, many locals still keep them. The area where most of these can be found is called the Pigeon Valley.   I have enlarged the above photo so that you can have a better view of the pigeon coops. Can you spot them on the left hand side of the photo?

In Turkiye, it is very common to see “Nazar Boncugu” or Evil Eye sold as sourvenirs.  It is believed that the jealous and envious look of others can cause various misfortunes to a person or his property. Carrying or wearing the amulet will protect its holder from the bad energies by absorbing them.  The owner of this sourvenir shop decorated the trees in his compound with many of these amulets. It is a good idea as it attracted many tourists to take photos beside them.

I do not know what that building in the photo is for and if it is still occupied.  It looks interesting.

This video provides a good panaromic view of the Uchisar Castle and its surrounding area.

You can also see a 360° view of Uchisar Castle from different vantage points at 360TR. 

I like this video I found on YouTube as it covered most of the places we had driven through and stopped to view Uchisar Castle and Pigeon Valley.

We did no see any pigeons flying around though as we were there in autumn. I read that during the colder months, pigeons will look for warm, dry places to roost.  So, they are most likely keeping themselves warm inside the pigeon coops of Pigeon Valley.