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Cappadocia is known around the world as one of the best places to go up in hot air balloons, with its impressive

and best-preserved Roman Agora in Asia rock churches, underground villages, Completing the offer is the Lil’a valleys, each with distinctive rock formations, colors and features. ©Ayhan Altun/Getty Images
Minor. After an earthquake in 178 AD, valleys and the most adrenaline-pumping restaurant with menus created by chef
Emperor Marcus Aurelius magnificently experience: a hot-air balloon flight at Saygn Sesli, among the best of the new
rebuilt it. Built on three floors, it preserves dawn. Departing usually at around 6:30 Turkish generation.
galleries with arches, columns, porticoes a.m., the flight is offered by 25 companies The good vibes emerge strongly in
and the ingenious irrigation system that offer different types of ‘basket’, from this stone-clad region when you visit the
formed by canals, cisterns and aqueducts. 4 to 20 seats with different costs, reaching Pink Valley, named after the color of its
Not to be missed. €3,000 if exclusive treatment is required. geological formations, and Uçhisar, a vil-
A change of scenery takes you to a Admiring the land from above in hot- lage carved out of the tuff dominated by
magical land: Cappadocia, on the Anatolian air balloons, carried only by the wind and a rock on top of which is a castle with a
Peninsula. A golden, honey-colored region currents in a celestial silence, watching spectacular view, or the underground cit-
that stirs deep emotions, especially along dozens of hot-air balloons simultaneously ies (there used to be around 200, today
the Fairy Chimneys inside the Göreme color the sky, is thrilling. A spectacle that there are 36) such as Derinkuyu, 85 meters
Open-Air Museum National Park, which can also be observed from the ground, underground. One cannot leave Cappado-
has been designated a UNESCO World while sipping a glass of champagne in the cia without witnessing the performance
Heritage Site. In this area dotted with Museum, an award-winning fairytale hotel of the Rotating Dervishes in the Saruhan,
astonishing volcanic rocks in the shape of and the only Relais & Château in Turkey, the last caravanserai built in the 13th cen-
soaring cones, towers and chimneys that with exquisite décor, antique furniture, tury by the Seljuk sultans. A spectacle as
were once the refuge of Christian hermits, cave rooms and suites with a private indoor mesmerizing as Cappadocia, it leaves you
there is no shortage of frescoed Byzantine pool, sauna and private hammam. breathless with its infinite beauty.

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