The tiny village of Ortahisar 6 kms west of Urgup lies at the foot of weird pock-marked tuff walls from which countless cave dwellings have been carved. An underground passage supposedly runs to northeast to the Isa Castle fortified rock. Some of the churches in the village were used as barns but the walls are richly decorated with scenes from Old and New Testament.
Many of the caves are used as intermediate stores for lemons. About 1 km from the town is the unspoiled Halas River Valley with its rock churches and a monastery for Armenian Christians.
Its most impressive structure is Ortahisar Castle which has been used as a cave castle by Hittite Empire with a height of 86 meters. The castle has been used strategically and for accommodation. At the outskirts of the castle, samples of the civil architecture characteristic to Cappadocia are available.
In almost entire valley, the stores of the rock caves had been used to store the agricultural products grown in the zone. It is an attractive and impressive town with its natural beauty and historical features.
Ortahisar is also well-known with its natural mineral water sources. The castle in the middle of town is a rock chimney. The foreigners call it a Chateau where the inside rooms and saloons are caved. Moreover, there are many churches around the town.
The natural beauties, old historic structures and interesting citrus gardens of Ortahisar, Cappadocia welcomes hundreds of thousands of people to that part of the world.
