Goreme Open Air Museum, Cappadocia
Goreme Open Air Museum is a unique museum in Turkey because it offers visitors the chance to see and explore the churches built inside the rocky wall. It is usually the first sight to be visited by travellers in Cappadocia because it is located in the center of the region with easy access from all directions. It is within walking distance from Goreme village center (around 15 minutes).
Goreme Open Air Museum has been a member of UNESCO World Heritage List since 1984. It is not without any reasons. The area covered by the Open Air Museum is known to form a coherent geographical entity and represents historical unity. There are a total of eleven refectories within the Museum, with rock-cut churches tables and benches. You can enter some of the rooms and see how it feels to live literally inside the rocks.
Each refectory is associated with a church. Most of the churches in Goreme Open Air Museum belong to the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries. The churches are built inside the rocks in order to avoid persecution during those times.
We visited one of the churches in Goreme called Church of Pantokrator. The wall paintings inside the rock church are still well-maintained and in order to preserve the color of the paintings, no flash photography allowed inside the church.
From one of the windows inside the church, you can see the view outside. The rocks opposite the Church of Pantokrator are also used by different churches and monasteries.
Did you notice that these rocky structures kinda resemble face? Reminds me of Lava in the short-opening-animation for Inside Out. Too bad the rocks here don't sing the Lava Song, oh well, after all they are rocks not volcanoes. XD #pardonmyrambling
