The story of Mount Erciyes

The fairy chimneys of Göreme were born from this mountain's ash. Rising beside the Sultansazlığı plain 25 km southwest of Kayseri, Erciyes is an extinct stratovolcano covering 3300 square kilometres, and at 3,917 metres it is the highest mountain in Central Anatolia. At least 64 small vents dot its flanks, and Roman coin images suggest it last erupted in 253 BC.

Geologists say this was sea 20 million years ago; about 15 million years ago eruptions in a lake built a cone 400 metres higher than today's peak and scattered ash up to 100 km away. That ash gave rise to the pumice beds of Tomarza and Develi and the fairy chimneys of Ürgüp and Göreme. The name comes from the Ancient Greek Argaeus.

Strabo claimed the summit was never free of snow and that both the Black Sea and the Mediterranean could be seen from it on a clear day. Today only one glacier remains, on the north slope, and the Earth's curvature makes those seas invisible.