Nevşehir Kalesi

Nevşehir Castle stands on a hill rising in the city centre and is the structure that defines the city's skyline. Go Türkiye, the promotion platform of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, explains that the castle's high position brings the city and the Cappadocian plateau together in a single view. When the castle was built is not known for certain. A study prepared at Bilkent University reports that the castle is thought to have been built by the Seljuks in the 12th century to protect caravans heading for Baghdad. The castles.nl website, which documents castles, writes that the structure was probably built by the Seljuks in the early 1200s and that a Byzantine building may have stood on the site before it. The story of the castle is intertwined with the name of the city. According to the same source, the town was called Muşkara in the 15th century, when it was under Karamanid rule. In 1726 the Ottoman grand vizier Damat İbrahim Pasha, who had been born in this town, had the old settlement rebuilt and gave it the name Nevşehir, meaning "new city". During this rebuilding the pasha also had the castle repaired. The same site states that the castle was built for a purely military purpose, to control traffic on the Silk Road passing through the town. The Bilkent study reports that the Cumhuriyet neighbourhood, where the castle stands, was largely demolished during urban renewal and that only a few historic buildings remain. This is why the old core of the city grew up at the foot of the castle, on the slopes around it. The castle has an oval plan. The same source writes that it has two gates and four round towers, and that black basalt stone was used in the original construction. Yellow stone was used in later repairs, so you can see the two colours side by side in the walls. Turkish Wikipedia notes that the castle has 42 crenels. Today the space inside the walls is laid out as a green courtyard, and the castle is part of a public park. From the walkway on top of the walls you can look out over the city in every direction. In the evening, when the walls are lit, the castle also looks striking from the city below. The slopes at the foot of the castle have been the scene of one of the city's greatest discoveries in recent years. Küre Ansiklopedi writes that in 2014, during urban renewal work begun around the castle, a multi-layered settlement came to light underground. This area, named Kayaşehir, was registered as a protected site and has seen excavation and cleaning work since 2015. According to the source, the area covers about 400,000 square metres, and more than a thousand rock-cut spaces have been uncovered here. These include living spaces, cisterns, horse stables, ventilation shafts, tunnels and rock tombs. Rock-cut places of worship are also part of this fabric. According to the ministry's announcement, water channels and tunnels were also uncovered in the first-stage area of 120,000 square metres. According to an announcement by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the 1,271 artefacts found during the work were placed under protection at the Nevşehir Museum, and the area was laid out together with the castle and opened to visitors. Most of the structures are arranged in terraces along the slope, and some parts look like a settlement seven storeys high. You can walk up to the castle from the city centre; the road is uphill but short. There is a viewing area at the top, and the best time to photograph the city is close to sunset. The walking paths and tunnels of Kayaşehir begin at the foot of the castle, so plan to visit the two together. Check the current opening hours and entry conditions of Kayaşehir on site or in the announcements of Nevşehir Municipality, which runs it. The ground in the hillside tunnels is uneven in places, so wear comfortable shoes. A visit to the castle is a good start for grasping the region's geography from above before heading to the valleys of Cappadocia. Uçhisar Castle is only 6 kilometres to the east, and it is possible to see both castles on the same day.