The Red and Rose Valleys at Göreme contain rock-cut churches carved into the volcanic tuff pinnacles and cliff faces of the Cappadocia landscape, some among the oldest in the region. Pre-iconoclast fresco programmes, earlier than the 9th century CE churches of the Göreme Open Air Museum, survive on the oldest chamber walls, and the weathering differential between these earlier structures and the later churches carved into the same tuff formation is consistent with the several-century age gap between them. The carved footholds and stairways cut into the tuff pinnacles have lost their associated wooden platforms, leaving the stone steps disconnected from their destinations.
Aerial / satellite view of Göreme Red and Rose Valley, Cappadocia, Turkey