[3] Like the rest of Cappadocia, Avanos has a continental climate with very hot, dry summers, and cold, snowy winters.

As Venessa, ancient Avanos was the third most important town in the Kingdom of Cappadocia (332 BC – 17 AD) according to the geographer Strabo.

[3] In Roman and Byzantine times, Avanos had a large Christian population who were responsible for the rock-cut Dereyamanlı Kilisesi.

Most of the visible remains of Avanos' history date from the 19th and early 20th centuries and take the form of many impressive stone houses, mostly built by the now-displaced Greek and Armenian populations.

[3] Avanos expanded rapidly in the early 2000s and there is now a lot of modern housing on the southern side of the river which was extensively landscaped and developed for recreational purposes in the years after 2010.

It is not known exactly when people began living in the rock-cut dwellings in a troglodytic lifestyle common to other places in the region such as Uçhisar, Göreme and Cavuşin.

[8] Dating back to the 6th or 7th century, the church of St. Agathangelus is located on the far left side of the Güllüdere valley about 2 km (1 mi) from the village of Çavuşin.

[9] Located 14 km (9 mi) northeast of Avanos, this underground city was carved out of the northern slopes of Mt.