Phrygian Valley

The Phrygian Valley - Frig Vadisi - is a region rather than a single place: a spread of soft volcanic tuff across the borders of Eskişehir, Afyonkarahisar and Kütahya, eroded into cliffs, pinnacles and canyons and worked over by the Phrygians from the eighth century BCE onward. They cut monumental facades into the rock, along with stepped altars, thrones, tombs, cisterns and defensive positions, and later Byzantine communities added churches, dovecotes and cave dwellings on top. Ayazini has a rock church with carved columns and a village of cut chambers; Döğer, Kümbet, Yazılıkaya, Aslantaş and Gerdekkaya each hold their own monuments. It is genuinely comparable to Cappadocia in scale of rock-cutting and it receives a tiny fraction of the visitors, which is both its appeal and its difficulty - almost nothing is signposted, developed or explained, and a car and some patience are essential.

What you actually see

• The carved facades - Phrygian monuments cut into cliffs.
• The stepped altars - cut thrones and cult platforms.
• Ayazini - the rock church and cave village.
• The badlands - tuff canyons and pinnacles across the region.

When to go

April to June and September to October. Spring brings green and flowers to the valleys; the plateau is hot in summer and snowbound in parts of winter.

Honest expectations

Sites are scattered over a hundred kilometres with minimal signage, few facilities and no public transport - a car and offline maps are required. Expect to hunt for things and to find some of them locked or overgrown.

Nearby

The Midas Monument at Yazılıkaya is the centrepiece; Eskişehir and Afyonkarahisar are the nearest cities.