You need to add the Cappadocia Ultra Trail to your bucket list; experience the mesmerising trails in a Unesco World Heritage Site

There’s a trail race in Turkey which will take your breath away. There’s no doubting there are several awesome ultra trail races around, often to be found clambering over the jaw-dropping scenery of the Dolomites and the Alps, or through the dizzy heights of Himalayas, in some of the most visually impactful and toughest terrain in the world.

And then there’s the Cappadocia Ultra Trail, a race quite unlike any other. The race takes place in central Turkey over the weekend of October 19-20 and is now celebrating its sixth birthday. It is also part of the Ultra Trail World Tour.

Turkey may not be famed for its jagged mountain peaks (although they are to be found in abundance), and it’s not known as a trail running honeypot, yet this race is genuinely one of the most unusual ultras on the international calendar.

Cappadocia is an arid desert-like region famed for its surreal fairy chimney rock formations, underground cities and narrow valleys. On arrival here it may appear you’ve walked straight on to the set of a Star Wars movie, although you soon learn this place is no Hollywood facade.

Cappadocia was once a remote outpost along the Silk Road. Over the centuries, numerous persecuted religious and minority groups fled here to seek sanctuary, and in doing so carved their homes into the rock faces and rock chimneys, as well as constructing entire cities beneath the ground, making for a cultural melting pot.