Johnmango

Our group of will be visiting Cappadocia in September.

Sorry for my ignorance. But I have heard that the underground city in Kaymakli
1) may be too much/difficult for a person with bad knees because there are many steps and stairs to navigate, and
2) many places have very low ceiling so a 6 ft plus person may find it hard to stoop and walk for a very long

Are these true? Your comments are most welcome. Thanks.

otherchelebi

Yes they are true.

it is also quite true that there are no artifacts, wall paintings etc. Just tunnels and rooms with low ceilings. You need to use a great deal of imagination without being concerned about the ceiling and the walls bearing down on you to enjoy this or other underground cities.

similarly, the Ihlara canyon is not for you because of the knees. however, you can drive to the end of the canyon to have a look and maybe visit the newly found neolithic village remnants.

propertravel

If you will have to be with your group, as we do in these cases, go till the entrance of the underground city and peak in, listen your guide telling first stories before entering in, you will have some idea at least and take a break outside looking at shops or enjoying your Turkish Coffee. Your group will take you than about half an hour later...

It is one of the Unesco World Heritage site and interesting to see and be there is important..

Have fun,

Murat

Michel_Paris

We visited one on our way from Goreme to Konya. More of an underground village than city. We had no height issues, so it may depend on which one you choose. Ours was..slightly off the beaten track We weer the only ones there.

For Ilhara valley, to clarify, it is called hiking, but in reality is it a very flat path along a small stream. The challenges are that occasionally you need to go around large boulders on the path. Some of our party did part of it, some just lounged near the stream. It is an oasis of green in the area.

One good memory of the valley was eating outside on a private platform over the stream, covered in turkish carpet, shade, breeze, eating a nice fish lunch.

yorkshire

With transportation, there are some part of Ilhara where you could enter the valley without having to take the stairs down or up as you do at the end.
I visited Kaymakli and I don't recall anything being particularly hard on the knees--you do have to bend over for some short stretched, even as a short person. I was only concerned with claustrophobia, but I had none.
Even entering some of the caves at the museum in Goreme will be difficult to someone with particularly bad knees.

Michel_Paris

Yorkshire,
Right you are.
We drove down into the Ilhara valley, not walking down via the steps.
One thing I forgot to add that the hiking part is to get you to the cave churches, which do require some climbing to get into.
Goreme Open Air would also, from what I remember, require some climbing of steps.