Along the Red River in central Turkey, this small town has a 4,000-year tradition of pottery making. Local artisans still create ceramics in riverside workshops.
In Turkey's Cappadocia region, Avanos stretches along the red-clay banks of the Kızılırmak River. You can shape clay into bowls at centuries-old pottery workshops, descend into newly discovered underground chambers, or visit a museum containing 30,000 locks of human hair. The town makes an ideal base for exploring the rock churches of Zelve and the cone-shaped rock formations at Paşabağı.
Making Traditional Pottery in Avanos
The red clay from the Kızılırmak River has supplied Avanos potters since Hittite times. Today, hundreds of workshops fill the town's streets. You'll find master potters working at kick wheels, using techniques passed down through generations. Sign up for a pottery class to create your own piece, or browse the showrooms for cooking pots, plates, and decorative items.
Exploring the Underground Structures
Small underground chambers run beneath old Avanos, with many now housing pottery workshops. In 2019, floods uncovered a larger underground complex called "Gir-Gör" (Enter and See) in nearby Çalış. You can explore its three underground levels, which archaeologists have dated to around 3000 BCE.
Visiting the Hair Museum
At the Chez Galip Hair Museum, you'll find walls covered with more than 30,000 locks of hair from previous visitors. Each sample comes with a label showing the donor's name and country of origin. The collection began when a local potter kept a lock of hair from his departing love interest, and visitors have added to it ever since.
Day Trips from Avanos
Walk through three valleys of rock-carved dwellings at Zelve, 5 kilometers from town. Between the 9th and 13th centuries, Christian communities carved churches and homes into these rock faces. At Paşabağı, cone-shaped rock formations rise from the ground, with distinctive thick bases and pointed tops. In Çavuşin, you can see the Church of St John the Baptist, built in 964-965 AD, with its surviving frescoes depicting biblical scenes.
Local Food and Drink
Order testi kebabı to watch servers crack open clay pots filled with slow-cooked meat and vegetables at your table. Try manti - small meat-filled dumplings topped with yogurt sauce and red pepper oil. Local wineries produce wines from grapes grown in the volcanic soil, continuing a winemaking tradition that dates back to early settlements in Cappadocia.
Getting to Avanos
Fly into Nevşehir Kapadokya Airport, which receives daily flights from Istanbul and other major Turkish cities. Regular buses run between Avanos and nearby towns, including Göreme (8 kilometers) and Nevşehir (18 kilometers). Local minibuses (dolmuş) connect to surrounding villages throughout the day.
