Göreme Open Air Museum is the heart of Christian Cappadocia, a complex of rock-carved churches and monasteries with thousand-year-old frescoes. UNESCO included it on the World Heritage list for good reason: nowhere else will you find such a concentration of Byzantine art in such an unusual landscape.

History of the Place

Christians came to Cappadocia in the first centuries CE, fleeing Roman persecution. The soft tuff allowed easy cave-carving, while the complex terrain provided refuge.

By the 4th century, monastic communities had formed here. The Cappadocian Fathers—Basil the Great, Gregory...