There are a great many rock dwellings and rock tombs in the country around Selimiye village in the İscehisar district of Afyonkarahisar. The rock mass immediately south of the village is known locally as the Hanay caves, and on its eastern face are numerous burial chambers, thought generally to belong to the Roman period.
Some of these rock tombs have plain fronts, but the ones to look for are those with triangular pediments and monumental facades. At the entrances of these grander chambers are figural and geometric reliefs, inscriptions, and paintings made with vegetable dye, and the same care shows around the graves in the interiors. Above the doorway of one of the monumental tombs a horseman painted in red ochre has survived to the present.
Getting there
- Access
- Go from central Afyonkarahisar to İscehisar, then on by dolmuş to the village of Sarıçayır.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Afyonkarahisar as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 0.4 °C in January to 22.2 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (56 mm) and lightest in August (14 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
