Ever dreamed of staying in a cave-hotel with all mod cons? Well, now s your chance to make those dreams come true with a stay in the gorgeous Kelebek Hotel, Goreme s most popular place.

Kelebek has a wonderful location, right in the heart of Goreme s historic old village, with spectacular views looking out towards Uchisar and Cavusin.

Until 1993 Kelebek was my family home, and like most homes in Goreme, it was made of a mixture of cave rooms and stone-arched rooms which had been added later. But the history of the site stretches right back to prehistory, to the days when the eruption of Mt Erciyes and then the effects of wind and rain on the tuff created our two fairy chimneys.

In medieval times the rooms in the top of the two chimneys served as simple chapels for local hermits; one of them even has a frescoed cross on the ceiling. Later my family used them to raise pigeons, store grapes, even to house a small library.


Today Kelebek -the Butterfly in English- has 31 rooms, some of them in the fairy chimneys, some in caves and some of them in the traditional arched rooms where my family used to live. The rooms are divided into six categories: Standard Rooms, Deluxe Rooms, Junior Suites, Suites, King Suites and Presidential Suites.

Suites have spacious cave bedrooms with hand-carved furnishings and locally-made fabrics, marble-walled bathrooms with their own hamam basins, power-showers and tbathtubs, and a lovely flower-filled garden with fairy chimneys behind it and the Pigeon Valley opening out in front of it. What more could you possibly wish for?

Everywhere you turn, you ll be amazed at the attention to detail. Kelebek has been constructed out of stones rescued from demolished houses. I have also scoured reclamation yards far and wide to come up with the bits and pieces of Cappadocia s history that serve as decoration throughout.