One of Türkiye’s most famed regions, Cappadocia’s hot air balloon valley welcomed almost 4 million tourists in the first 11 months of this year, the latest data shows.

Cappadocia's museums and archaeological sites were visited by 3.97 million foreign and domestic tourists from January through November, according to data by the Culture and Tourism Directorate of Nevşehir, a central province where the site is located.

That means Cappadocia exceeded the numbers from 2019, considered to be the "golden year" for the tourism industry.

The figure marks an 83% year-over-year increase versus the same period from a year ago when the number of visitors stood at 2.16 million.

Cappadocia is famous for its fairy chimneys, valleys, underground cities, churches and open-air museums.

Göreme Open Air Museum was the most popular site in the region, visited by over 1 million people in the first 11 months of the year.

In the January-November period of 2019, Cappadocia was visited by 3.66 million domestic and foreign tourists.

Arrivals plunged in the same period of 2020 due to curbs amid the coronavirus pandemic. Some 962,124 people visited the region in the January-November period of that year.

Cappadocia with its geological heritage sites has been preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985, and as of Monday, it gained new recognition as part of the U.N.'s top 100 geo-sites list.