Erciyes: the back story

About Erciyes: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ski Resorts Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Mount Erciyes rises to 3,917 metres, 25 km south of Kayseri, the summit of ancient Cappadocia. Over the past decade the Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality has turned its slopes into Türkiye’s most developed ski centre, run by Kayseri Erciyes A.Ş., the country’s first professional mountain-management company.

Argaios, the mountain of Cappadocia

Erciyes is a volcano, shaped by eruptions that began about 2.5 million years ago, and at 3,917 metres it is the highest mountain in Central Anatolia. Under the Romans it was called Argaios. From its slopes you look over the plains of Kayseri and towards Cappadocia, the landscape of fairy chimneys that its ash helped to create.

A ski centre built for the Alps standard

With investment from the Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality, the operator Kayseri Erciyes A.Ş. has built a network of 19 lifts, two of them gondolas, across a 25 km area of the mountain, with 24,000 metres of cable carrying 26,750 people an hour. There are 41 linked pistes and 112 km of skiing, on and off piste, of which about 80 km are groomed every day, between roughly 2,200 and 3,400 metres. The groomed runs divide into 36% blue, 42% red and 22% black.

A volcano above Cappadocia, and the most modern ski area in Türkiye.

Snow, safety and the longest run

Erciyes’ cold, high-altitude air brings dry powder, and 154 snow cannons can cover 54 km of runs even when the sky stays clear. A 30-strong piste security team, trained in first aid and search and rescue, patrols the slopes, and helmets are compulsory. The longest run, piste 14, drops 4,210 metres from 3,346 metres.

Four gates, one ticket

The ski area has four entrances, Tekir, Develi, Hisarcık and Hacılar, and a single ticket covers them all. Gondolas rise from Hacılar and Tekir, the Snow Academia school runs a dedicated learning area at Hisarcık, and on Fridays and Saturdays piste 13 at Tekir is floodlit for night skiing, with hot şıra, a grape drink, served round barrel fires.

Every budget

Most visitors stay in Kayseri, 20 minutes away, where city hotels offer transport to the slopes, or take the municipal buses on weekends. On the mountain, the Tekir plateau at about 2,150 metres has family hotels such as Erciyes Hill and Ace Kite, all-inclusive Megasaray Mount Erciyes and DAS 3917, with its chalets and après scene.

Our advice: wear a helmet, it is the rule; come midweek outside the school holidays; and save a day for Cappadocia, fifty minutes away.

Erciyes in brief

From Kayseri Erciyes A.Ş., the operator (kayserierciyes.com.tr), October 2026.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Erciyes: the back story before you go.