Göreme Open Air Museum in the Cappadocia Region, Turkey; Rick Steves Best of Turkey tour, April 2022

Göreme Open Air Museum in the Cappadocia Region, Turkey - with Rick Steves Best of Turkey tour, April 2022

We visited here as part of Rick Steves "Best of Turkey in 13 Days" tour from March 28 to April 9, 2022 with tour guide, Yaren Türkoğlu. It was fantastic!

Rick Steves Tours: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/greece-turkey/turkey
Yaren Türkoğlu on Instagram: @canyaren
Yaren is a tour guide with SRM Travel: http://www.srmtravel.com/SRMGuides.html

This is a monastic complex, dating back to the 11th to 13th centuries. Historians believe this used to be the site of an old Roman cemetery, a pagan cemetery

The 'fairy chimney' rocks were formed after a volcanic eruption 2.6 million years ago. Since the 400s AD, Christian communities lived there and carved caves.

St Basil's Chapel
This church is situated at the entrance to the Goreme Open Air Museum. Graves are to be found in the columned narthex area. The nave is transversally rectangular and barrel vaulted, and has three apses situated on the left, long side of the rectangular nave, The church dates back to the 11th Century.

Basil of Caesarea (330 to 379 AD), his brother Gregory of Nyssa and their friend, Gregory of Nazianzus

Snake Church (Yilanli, St Onuphrius)
It is named for the fresco of Saints Theodore and St George slaying the dragon (or snake as depicted in the fresco). The church also has a fresco of Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena depicted holding the True Cross. Legend has it that she discovered the cross upon which Jesus was crucified after seeing it in a dream, and that a piece of the cross is still buried in the foundations of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Other sections of the cross are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and in St. Peter's in Rome. Another interesting portrait is the one of Saint Onuphrius on the upper wall to the right of the entrance. The saint lived the life of a hermit in the Egyptian desert near Thebes, Egypt and is usually depicted with a long gray beard and wearing only a fig leaf.

Chapel of St Barbara
Barbara was a faithful Christian but her father didn't approve so he tortured and killed her.

Buckle Church (near parking lot)
This is the largest church of the area, decorated in the 10th and 11th centuries.

Dark Church
Monastic compund built in the 11th century. it is decorated with scenes from the New Testament.

Pantokrator Church

Three connected areas with storage, kitchen, winery and dining room

Видео Göreme Open Air Museum in the Cappadocia Region, Turkey; Rick Steves Best of Turkey tour, April 2022 канала Eileen Weed