Goreme Open Air Museum

From around 10:00 the tour buses pull in at the Goreme Open Air Museum, and an hour later you may queue longer for the little cave churches than you spend inside them. Come at 08:00, when the gates open, and you share the site and the morning light on the rock with few others. Foreign visitors pay €20 to enter, and the Dark Church, the best preserved of the churches, charges a separate extra fee.

Key details at a glance

The site's story in brief

Starting in the 4th century, Cappadocian monks cut homes and chapels out of the soft volcanic tuff. The Goreme valley grew into a big monastic settlement. Most of its painted churches belong to the 10th to 12th centuries, the period after Byzantine Iconoclasm ended and pictures of figures were permitted once more. A few older chapels carry plain red geometric patterns painted directly on the rock. The valley was made a museum in the 20th century, and in 1985 it became part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Goreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia.

Highlights

• The Dark Church (Karanlik Kilise). Tiny windows let in little light, so its frescoes of Christ's life still show rich blues. Only a limited number of people may enter at once.
• The Apple Church (Elmali Kilise). Painted walls, reached through a tunnel.
• The Snake Church (Yilanli Kilise). St George and St Theodore are shown battling a dragon.
• The Church of St Barbara. Red-painted symbols and mythical animals.
• The Buckle Church (Tokali Kilise). Over the road from the main gate, it is the biggest church and among the finest, and the main ticket covers it. Lots of visitors never find it.
• The nunnery. Close to the entrance, a rock complex several storeys high.

When to go

Go at opening time or after 15:30, once most groups have gone. If you fly in a balloon that morning, you can still reach the gate by 08:00 at an easy pace. July and August are hot, with hardly any shade in the valley. Snow on the rock in winter is lovely, but the paths may be icy.

On our Private Cappadocia Highlights Tour with Open-Air Museum, a private guide collects you from your hotel in Cappadocia for six to eight hours, and the museum is the first stop. Travelling from Istanbul, you can take the Cappadocia Day Trip from Istanbul with Flights & Private Guide, which flies there and back the same day and visits Goreme, Uchisar and an underground city. To see the region over more than one day, look at the Best of Cappadocia: 1, 2 or 3-Day Private Cappadocia Tour.

Practical advice

• To protect the frescoes, photos are not allowed inside the painted churches, and the guards check.
• Expect small, dark churches and steep steps, some cut from the rock, so wear solid shoes.
• Carry water. The café is by the car park, not inside the site.
• A guide makes a real difference: the frescoes are lovely, but without explanation they are hard to understand.
• Short on time? Pick the Dark Church and the Buckle Church instead of rushing through every chapel.

Is it for you?

Nowhere else in Cappadocia can you see so many painted churches in one place, so it is worth going if Byzantine art or early Christianity interests you. Young children tend to get less out of it, since the chapels are tight and the rules strict. The same is true for people who came mostly for the scenery: valleys near Goreme such as Rose Valley or Pasabag offer more room and more landscape for less money. Visitors with limited mobility can reach the lower churches, but steep steps or rock-cut ladders lead to several of the chapels.

Find more of the region on our Cappadocia destination page.

Questions visitors ask