Goreme Open Air Museum

Cappadocia is big!  And we're getting only a slice!  But what a slice! Today we went to the Goreme Open Air Museum--a small valley where a monestary (ies?) was established within caves carved out of the tufa stone.  Unfortunately, no pictures from inside the individual caves - prohibited.  Many were painted from 9th to 12 centuries.  Older paintings than those were destroyed during the iconoclastic period.

The star was a large cave church, complete with nave, apse and columns carve out of stone but to appear as constructed in traditional matter.

Here are a few pics from outside the caves.