What sets Özkonak apart from Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu is a detail in the rock: very narrow, long holes, about five centimetres across, bored between the floors. They carried messages from one level to another, and once the entrances of the cut rooms were closed they were what let air in.
The city was dug into the north slopes of Idis Dağı, where the volcanic tuff lies thick, at the town of Özkonak 14 kilometres from Avanos. Its galleries spread over a wide area and are joined to one another by tunnels, and it has what the other underground cities have: air shafts, a well, a winery and rolling stone doors. It is reached by road from Ürgüp, and by air through Nevşehir or Kayseri.
Getting there
- Access
- Fly to Nevşehir or Kayseri, or come by road, then go by way of Ürgüp to the town of Özkonak.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Nevşehir as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -0.1 °C in January to 21.4 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (58 mm) and lightest in August (8 mm). Long-term means for 1959-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
