Hacıbektaş is a small Anatolian town about an hour's drive north of Nevşehir, reached by taking a local minibus through the town of Gülşehir. It belongs on any serious Cappadocia itinerary because it illuminates a side of Turkey that most visitors never encounter: the Alevi-Bektaşi tradition of Islam, a humanist and syncretic strand that has shaped perhaps a quarter of all Turkish Muslims.
The town's central draw is the Hacı Bektaş Veli Complex, the former dergah (monastery) where students of the Bektaşi order were trained for centuries. The complex includes a kitchen, a ceremonial hall, and the tomb of Hacı Bektaş Veli himself — the 13th-century mystic who founded the order and whose philosophy placed the human being at the centre of all things. The architecture is austere and moving; the setting genuinely peaceful.
A few minutes' drive from the town center is an open-air complex with an amphitheater and the famous cilehane — a narrow cave passage through which pilgrims traditionally crawl to symbolize absolution from sin. Whether you fit through it depends on your coat and your karma. At certain times of year, the town's culture center hosts sema performances, the ecstatic ritual dances of the Alevi tradition.
Hacıbektaş hosts one of Turkey's largest annual gatherings in August, the Hacıbektaş Anma Töreni festival, which draws Alevis from across Turkey and the diaspora. If you visit then, expect crowds and a charged atmosphere; at any other time, the town is quiet and welcoming to curious visitors.