Goreme Open Air Museum description and photos - Turkey: Cappadocia (Topic)

Goreme Open Air Museum description and photos - Turkey: Cappadocia. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Goreme.

Photo and description

In Cappadocia, in an area of about 30 by 20 km (Nevsehir-Avanos-Urgup triangle), there are amazing tuff rocks of the most bizarre shapes. The reason is that this is the result of the eruption of Erdjiyash volcano, which occurred in very ancient times. Lava flows mixed with ash poured into the Goreme Valley and covered an area of several thousand square kilometers in a thick layer. Then over the centuries the winds blew away, the rains washed away the light rocks, and the frozen lava and compressed ash gradually turned into tuff - soft in processing and at the same time durable building material.

There are about 400 churches in the vicinity of Goreme. Some were built by early Christians during the time of Basil the Great (century), but most of them date back to the 9th-11th centuries, the period of iconoclasm and Seljuk rule. The latest church was built shortly before the Mongol invasion in the 13th century.

The most famous are: the Church of St. Basil of the XI century with many frescoes; the church of St. Barbara, decorated with geometric patterns of red ocher; the church with sandals, named after two recesses on the floor at the entrance, with preserved frescoes from the 11th century; Serpentine church with frescoes depicting St. George with a dragon, Emperor Constantine and his wife Helen, St. Onuphria; The curved church is one of the largest churches with paintings of the 10th century depicting scenes from the life of Christ.

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Topic: Goreme Open Air Museum description and photos - Turkey: Cappadocia.