Cappadocia: Urgup

Ürgüp is about 7 kilometers from Göreme and is a modern town catering to the needs of tourists as well as a market town for the whole area on Saturdays.

Ürgüp has grown enormously over the last twenty years or so in response to the needs of tourists, and is now a major shopping centre especially for carpets, jewelry, antiques, leather, ceramics, and hookahs. A permanent handicrafts market (the El Sanatlar) offers a variety of souvenirs and the Turkish Bath (hamam) is geared to the needs of tourists as well as locals. Ürgüp has some lively nightlife with a theatre, discos and bars offering Turkish evenings of food, drink and traditional dancing. Around Ürgüp the long standing Ottoman and Greek tradition of wine making continues. Many wine shops offer free wine testing all year round and a Wine Festival is held every year in the first week of June.

The old dwellings of Ürgüp are now principally used for storage and stabling but there are still some strikingly beautiful houses of Greek and Ottoman origin to be found and in the streets winding away from the town centre many locals are living their lives in the old traditions.

Ürgüp has a "Wishpoint" for those who require lasting benefits from their holiday. The route to the wishpoint is interesting in itself as it starts opposite the 13th century Kebir Camii (mosque) then follows a long tunnel to the top of Temenni, the hill of wishes, where you will find the Seljuk tomb of Kılıçarslan IV, a park where you can relax and admire the view and a medrese (Islamic college) which is now a cafe where you can refresh yourself and decide just what to spend your wish on.