Göreme
A whole valley hollowed out from within: churches, refectories and houses inside the rock.
- Builtchurches of the 10th–12th centuries
- DistrictNevşehir
- UNESCO World Heritage
Volcanic tuff is soft enough to carve with simple tools and hardens on contact with air. That, and not devotion alone, is what made this a monastic region: you could build quickly and hide well.
The open-air museum gathers a dozen churches in one valley. The Karanlık Kilise — the Dark Church — is ticketed separately and has the best-preserved frescoes of all, precisely because so little light ever reached them.
Wear shoes with a real sole. The floor is rock polished by a thousand years of footsteps.
What to look for
- The Karanlık Kilise — the Dark Church, ticketed separately. Its frescoes are the best in Cappadocia, and they are that way precisely because so little light ever reached them.
- The Tokalı Kilise, across the road and outside the museum, which plenty of people never see.
- The rock-cut refectories, tables and benches carved out of the stone itself, beside the churches.
- The dovecotes in the cliffs: orderly holes cut to collect guano, which fertilised the vineyards.
Before you go
- Wear shoes with a real sole: the floor is rock polished by a thousand years of footsteps, and it is slippery.
- The open-air museum is a circuit of ups and downs — allow an hour and a half to two.
- The Dark Church is sold separately, at the gate. Decide there rather than inside.
- No flash in the churches. The frescoes are seven hundred years old, which is why the rule exists.
