Photographs of Goreme in Cappadocia

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Göreme, previously called Avcilar, was a small farming town until the tourists found it. It's now the centre of budget tourism in the region.
In the past, early Christian monks sought the isolation of this region during the 2nd century Roman persecutions. Many settlements in Cappadocia were established primarily as monastic communities. It was under the guidance of St. Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in the 4th century, that the first churches were built in the soft tufa of the Goreme Valley. Here, a number of small communities with their own churches formed the large monastic complex that is now the Open Air Museum
Some of the wall paintings were beautiful and well preserved, but are now protected with no photography allowed.