10 July 2012-- Göreme Open Air Museum

Today was another day of wonders! I admit that I had these great intentions prior to the trip. I was going to read up on each site, study a little Turkish culture and politics, and was going to be this well-informed traveller. Well, this did not happen. In some respects, I think this was to my advantage because every site was very new to me. Even familiar sites (Ayasofia) were new and I found something to discover.

Göreme was an amazing site. From Wikipedia:

Göreme is a district of the Nevşehir Province in Turkey. After the eruption of Mount Erciyes about 2,000 years ago, ash and lava formed soft rocks in the Cappadocia Region, covering a region of about 20,000 km. The softer rock was eroded by wind and water, leaving the hard cap rock on top of pillars, forming the present-day fairy chimneys. People of Göreme, at the heart of the Cappadocia Region, realized that these soft rocks could be easily carved out to form houses, churches, monasteries. These Christian sanctuaries contain many examples of Byzantine art from the post-iconoclastic period. These frescoes are a unique artistic achievement from this period.

In the 4th century small anchorite communities began to form in the region, acting on instruction of Saint Basil of Caesarea. They carved cells in the soft rock. During the iconoclastic period (725-842) the decoration of the many sanctuaries in the region was held to a minimum, usually symbols such as the depiction of the cross. After this period, new churches were dug into the rocks and they were richly decorated with colourful frescoes.

Here I am at a scenic overlook.

St Barbara

We visited the Nunnery, the Apple Church, St. Barbara's Church, St. Onuphorius Church, Chapel of St. Catherine, Çarikli (Sandal) Church, and the Tokali (Buckle) Church.

These churches were vandalized at some point prior to the site becoming a museum in 1950. In Islam, it was forbidden to draw pictures of humans, so many of the faces were scratched out. Sometimes, just the nose or an eye would be scratched out.

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