The ancient town of Urgup lies just next to the road from Nevsehir to Kayseri.
The town is built at the slope of a rocky hill. The hill is made of volcanic
tuff and most of the houses were carved out of this soft rock formation. The
houses next to the top of the hill were deserted a long time ago. The town
reflects a beige earth color from a distance. The rest of the carved rock houses
are used as sheds these days.
The view of the new tourist resort and the museum buildings next to the town
match to the surrounding landscape. Whole area is covered with strange and
unique land formations. The sudden slopes of colorful gorges, the so-called
fairy chimneys, natural and human-made caves give a super-natural character to
the environment.
The fairy-chimneys are in fact tall pinnacles made of tuff with a large rock
sitting on the top. They were established through the geological movements and
the erosion due to the atmospheric conditions.
There are a number of early Christian churches, monasteries and chapels
carved out of this volcanic tuff material in the surroundings. The town is known
to be the residence to the bishops, during the Middle Ages.