The underground city
A hundred metres or so of passages cut into volcanic tuff, with rooms, a small chapel, a wine press and heavy round stone doors.
cankurtaran — CC BY 3.0 · Hamdigumus — CC0 · Hamdigumus — CC0 · Hamdigumus — CC0
The man who raised the Süleymaniye over Istanbul and the Selimiye over Edirne was born around 1490 in a small stone village some 25 km east of Kayseri, and the house the locals call his is still standing. In Ottoman registers Ağırnas was a village of weavers and stonemasons: its fine white cotton cloth sold in England, France and Holland, and its masons worked imperial building sites from Istanbul to Cairo. Sinan himself left as a young man of about twenty-two, taken under the devşirme levy in 1511 or 1512, and only ever came back as a name. A wry footnote: from 1923 to 2003 the village was officially called Taşören before it reclaimed the old one. The house, restored in 2004 and run by Melikgazi municipality, is a modest museum: vaulted stone rooms, a portrait of the architect, models of his best-known works and panels on his life, mostly in Turkish with a little English. If you come expecting an exhibition that explains Sinan's engineering genius, you will be out in fifteen minutes feeling short-changed. What earns the trip is what lies under the house rather than in it: from its cellars you descend into an underground city cut into the volcanic tuff that blankets this plateau, parts of which are still being dug out. The section open to visitors is a modest stretch of a hundred metres or so, with rooms, a hall, a small chapel, a wine press, kitchens and stables, and round stone doors that were rolled across the passages, some heavy enough to need two men. A municipal guide walks you through for nothing; it is wise to phone ahead or come on a Saturday or Sunday, when someone is more likely to be on hand. The passages are low and cold all year, so bring a light jacket even in August, and skip it entirely if enclosed spaces bother you or you are pushing a pram. Children from about seven upward usually enjoy it more than the adults do. There is no public transport worth relying on; by car it is roughly half an hour from central Kayseri along the Sivas road and then right towards Gesi. Make it part of a single day: the Kültepe mound (Assyrian Kanesh) lies on the same side of the city, the dovecotes of the Gesi valley are on the way, and in the village itself the stone lanes have been recobbled and around a hundred house fronts restored by the municipality since 2020; the Halıcıoğlu mansion, a family restoration, opens to visitors on an informal basis. Spring and autumn are best; summer up top is hot and dry, and winter brings snow to the village roads.
A hundred metres or so of passages cut into volcanic tuff, with rooms, a small chapel, a wine press and heavy round stone doors.
Vaulted stone rooms with the architect's portrait and models of the Süleymaniye and Selimiye; its cellars are the doorway to the world below.
Quiet recobbled stone lanes, restored house fronts, and the Gesi valley dovecotes on the way.
Ağırnas Mahallesi, Melikgazi, Kayseri
If Cappadocia is on your itinerary, do not come for the underground city alone; Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı are far deeper and larger. Ağırnas earns an hour for a different reason: it is Sinan's birthplace, it is free, and you will have it almost to yourself. Treat it as a stop on a day that also takes in Kültepe and Gesi, not as a destination in itself.
Practically, no. Minibuses to the village are infrequent and unreliable, and no use if you want to combine it with Kültepe. Hire a car or agree a half-day fare with a Kayseri taxi driver, which is what most visitors do.