Fairy chimney collapses near Göreme Open-Air Museum in Cappadocia, killing two
Two people were killed on Thursday when rocks broke off a fairy chimney near the entrance to the Göreme Open-Air Museum in Turkey's Cappadocia region, Nevşehir Governor Hüseyin Kök said. He blamed a landslide caused by heavy rain. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek later put the number of injured at five, citing initial findings, and announced an investigation. Search and rescue teams kept working at the site to check whether anyone else was trapped under the rocks.
Two people died and one was injured on Thursday, 29 October, when part of a fairy chimney, one of the volcanic rock spires that make Cappadocia one of Turkey's most visited destinations, collapsed near the entrance to the Göreme Open-Air Museum, in the town of Göreme, Nevşehir province.
Nevşehir Governor Hüseyin Kök said a landslide caused by excessive rainfall occurred at about 3:15 p.m. local time. "As a result of the rockfall caused by the landslide, we have unfortunately reached the bodies of two people as of now, and we have sent one injured person to hospital," he told reporters at the scene. The injured person is being treated in a hospital in the city.
Watch the moment the rocks fell near the Göreme entrance:
⚡️Rock collapses near tourists in Cappadocia Huge boulders came crashing down in an area near the entrance to the popular Göreme tourist complex in Turkey.
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 29, 2026
According to Anadolu Agency, the rocks fell onto an area where people were present. Police, gendarmerie, the disaster agency AFAD and health teams were sent to the site and a crisis desk was set up. Kök said the scene had been evacuated and sealed off, describing it as a small, local area, and that teams were checking whether anyone else was trapped under the debris. The cause will be investigated once the search is over, he added.
NTV's reporter at the scene said the collapse happened next to an open-air car park, where around 150 vehicles were parked at the time. Early reports from the İHA news agency had mentioned three people taken to hospital, and the governor first gave a toll of two dead and one injured. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek later said that, according to initial findings, two people were killed and five were injured, and that the Nevşehir chief prosecutor's office had opened an investigation, assigning a deputy chief prosecutor and two prosecutors to the case.
The authorities have not released the identities or nationalities of the victims. The collapse came on Republic Day, a public holiday in Turkey, AP noted. Rain and wind have hit Nevşehir province this week, and hot-air balloon flights over Cappadocia were cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday because of the weather.
Göreme National Park and the rock sites of Cappadocia have been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1985. Fairy chimneys in the region had partially collapsed in 2024 and 2025, but without casualties, according to NTV.