The cross-planned rock church
A church on a cross plan hollowed entirely out of volcanic rock, among the best-preserved survivors of the Byzantine settlement.
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About 45 km southwest of Konya the road drops without warning into a narrow valley of grey volcanic rock, and the village of Gökyurt (officially renamed Kilistra in 2017) appears with its old houses, churches and tombs cut straight into the stone. This is Kilistra, which Konya people like to call their little Cappadocia. The comparison is honest about the look and generous about the scale: there are no balloons, no cave hotels and no coaches, just a quiet village where sheep graze between ruins that are more than two thousand years old. Settlement here goes back to the Hellenistic era in the third century BC, but the real boom came in the first Christian centuries, when a cross-planned church was hollowed out of the rock, along with the small Sandıkkaya chapel carved from a single block like a chest, roughly forty rock tombs, cisterns, watchtowers and underground refuges. Recent excavation uncovered a sixth-century episcopal church with gilded mosaics, and Seljuk coins showing that life carried on after the Turkish conquest. Turkish sources put the site on the ancient royal road and tie it to St Paul's journey through neighbouring Lystra, near Hatunsaray, though the two names are still muddled to this day. The site is open and free, with no gate, no tickets and no opening hours, which also means no facilities to speak of: no tourist café, no proper toilets, no resident guide, at most a small village teahouse. You come by private car or a taxi from Konya via Hatunsaray in about an hour; there is no useful public transport. The visit is a walk on dirt paths and a scramble over rock with no steps, so it is out for pushchairs and anyone unsteady on their feet, while children who like climbing will have the time of their lives. The valley sits a little higher than Konya and is cooler in summer, but August sun on bare rock is punishing, so go in the morning with water and hats. In winter snow can cover the village roads and make the rock slippery. One to two hours is enough, and it makes most sense combined with Lystra or Lake Beyşehir in a single day. Whether it is worth the drive on its own is a matter of taste: a lover of ruins will find a forgotten treasure, someone chasing Cappadocia will drive home mildly disappointed.
A church on a cross plan hollowed entirely out of volcanic rock, among the best-preserved survivors of the Byzantine settlement.
A tiny chapel carved from a single block of rock in the shape of a chest, the best-known image of Kilistra.
Around forty carved tombs, cisterns and underground refuges scattered through the valley, found on foot with almost no signage.
Kilistra (Gökyurt) village, Meram district, Konya
No. Kilistra is a small valley in a quiet village you see in two hours; Cappadocia is a whole region with balloons, cave hotels and underground cities. Visit Kilistra if you are already in Konya and enjoy ruins and quiet, not as a stand-in for Cappadocia.
With children who walk and climb, yes, and they will love it. With babies and pushchairs, no: the paths are dirt, the climbs are over bare rock with no railings, and the village has no facilities.
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