Kaymaklı Underground City, Cappadocia

Kaymaklı Underground City tickets and opening hours

Foreign visitors pay €13 from age 8; younger children are free. The site is open every day from 8:00 — to 19:00 from April to September (last tickets 18:15) and to 17:00 from October to March (last tickets 16:15).

The Ministry of Culture sets the price in euros and the ticket office charges the lira equivalent at the day’s rate, so a card is easiest. There is no need to book: you buy at the gate, and the only queues form when tour coaches arrive.

The Museum Pass Cappadocia is valid here. It covers three days and more than ten museums and sites in Nevşehir and Aksaray provinces and costs €65 (not valid for night museum visits). Add up the sites you will really visit — the Göreme Open-Air Museum, Kaymaklı, Derinkuyu, Ihlara Valley — and buy it only if the total is higher.

Kaymaklı vs Derinkuyu: which is better?

You don’t need both — they are built the same way. Short on time, travelling with kids or nervous about tight spaces? Pick Kaymaklı. Want the sense of real depth? Go to Derinkuyu. Many Green Tour day trips include just one of them, so check which.

Is Kaymaklı Underground City worth it?

Yes, for most first-time visitors to Cappadocia. It is the easiest underground city to see well in an hour: the rooms are large, the route is lit and the stairs are gentler than at Derinkuyu. Skip it only if you have already seen Derinkuyu or if tight spaces are a real problem for you.

Kaymaklı is also the better choice with children or older travellers, and on a day already packed with the Ihlara Valley walk — it fits neatly on the same road south.

What is Kaymaklı Underground City?

Beneath the village, eight levels were cut into soft volcanic tuff: living rooms, stables, storerooms, kitchens, wine and oil presses, wells, ventilation shafts and a chapel. The top four are lit and open. The Ministry of Culture dates the first level to the Hittites; Romans and Byzantines later dug it deeper.

Villagers hid here for weeks when armies crossed the plain. Passages were sealed with round stone doors that rolled in a groove and locked from inside. The last people to use it as a refuge were the village’s Greek Christians, before the population exchange of 1923.

What to see inside

• Rolling stone doors at the entrances to the levels — look for the groove they rolled along.
• The stable on level one, with feeding troughs carved straight into the wall.
• The chapel on level two — a nave, two apses and benches along the walls.
• Kitchens and presses on level three, their ceilings blackened by smoke.
• The block with 57 holes — guides explain it differently; the usual answer is copper working.
• Ventilation shafts — stand under a grate and feel the air coming down.
• Level-four storerooms with pits for clay jars, enough supplies for months.

Cappadocia’s historic sites compared

Every historic site in Cappadocia rated by YesGo. Tap a column heading to sort.

How to do it right

• One underground city is enough for most people — choose Kaymaklı or Derinkuyu rather than doing both.
• Pair Kaymaklı with a walk in the Ihlara Valley — it is the same road south.
• Bring a light layer even in July: it feels cool underground all year.
• Hold small children’s hands in the passages — the steps are uneven and the light is dim in places.
• Tall travellers have the hardest time between levels: go slowly and mind your head.
• Signs are few inside; don’t wander into unlit tunnels — they are closed for a reason.

Questions