Göreme Open Air Museum

About this place

The finest frescoes in Cappadocia are locked inside the church with almost no windows. That is the paradox the Göreme Open Air Museum turns on: along a few hundred metres of soft cliff, monks carved more than a dozen churches, cells and refectories between the 10th and 13th centuries, and the paintings the sun never reached are the ones that still glow in blues and reds as if finished decades ago rather than a thousand years. This is the core of the Göreme area inscribed by UNESCO in 1985, and by some distance the busiest site in the region. The route is a rising loop past the Apple Church, the Snake Church, the Sandal Church and St Barbara, all covered by the basic ticket of €20 for foreign visitors (young children under 8 free). The Dark Church takes a separate ticket bought at its door, €6, and it is the best money you will spend here: the other churches are scratched and faded in places, while this one looks complete. Do not skip Tokalı Church across the road by the car park. It is the largest and airiest of the lot, included on the same ticket, and most visitors walk straight past it without knowing. Photography is banned inside every church, so spend the time looking rather than hunting for an angle. The museum sits 1.5 km from Göreme centre, a twenty-minute uphill walk or five minutes by car, with paid parking. Coaches arrive between ten and three and turn the Dark Church into a long queue, so come at the 08:00 opening or after four in the afternoon. In August there is almost no shade between the churches and the afternoon heat is punishing; make it your first stop of the day. In winter the site closes early, around 17:00, and snow on the paths makes the views wonderful and the steps slippery. The path is paved but full of steps, short tunnels and narrow doorways, so a pushchair is dead weight; children of six and up love climbing into the churches and through the tunnels, younger ones need carrying. Ninety minutes covers everything at an easy pace. If you have one day in Cappadocia and Byzantine painting leaves you cold, be honest with yourself: what this place offers is inside the rock, not the shape of it. Love Valley and Rose Valley give you the landscape you came for at no charge, and Zelve gives you bigger rocks with fewer people. But if you want to understand why anyone hollowed out these hills, this is the place.