The Göreme Open Air Museum is the most concentrated collection of Byzantine rock-cut churches in Cappadocia, a landscape where the erosion of volcanic tuff has produced the tower formations into which Christian monastic communities carved churches, chapels, and monasteries from the 9th century CE onwards. The churches of Göreme contain some of the finest Byzantine fresco cycles surviving anywhere in the world, their pigments preserved by the constant temperature and humidity of the tuff interior. The Dark Church, the Snake Church, and the Buckle Church each represent a complete ecclesiastical spatial programme carved from a single formation of volcanic rock.
Official Attribution
Builder
Early Christians
Date
c. 900 CE
Photo Gallery · 9 photos
Aerial View
Aerial / satellite view of Göreme Open Air Museum, Cappadocia, Turkey