Goreme Open Air Museum

Goreme is a town in the middle of Goreme National Park, which is a world heritage site. Imagine the Badlands of South Dakota only with rooms carved into the rock formations. Some of those carved rooms are actually whole churches. The Christian community started here in the first century and continued for a thousand years. The most spectacular cave churches are from the 11th to 13th centuries. There is one church, called the Dark Church, because little light gets in, that has 800-year-old wall and ceiling frescoes that still have very vibrant colors. Another church, St. Barbara, is quite large and houses frescoes with many scenes from the Bible. The UNESCO website (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/357) gives a good account of the site. I took lots of pictures. I took two interior church shots until I was told not to. You can get an idea of the interior if you imagine the ceiling and walls covered with similar frescoes. Here are a few pictures to give you some idea of the site.

These are some views of and from our hotel. 

For dinner, we split a chicken kebab dish that was baked in a sealed clay pot and then served flaming as shown here. The waiter broke the seal with a little hammer and then removed the top. It was as tasty as it was dramatic.