Goreme Open Air Museum |
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Goreme Open Air Museum is a rock settlement located 2 km to the east of Goreme Town at 13 km distance to Nevsehir. A monastery life has been lived in Goreme from the 4th century AD until the 13th century. There are churches, chapels, dining halls and seating places in almost all rock blocks. The Goreme Open Air Museum of today is the place where this education system was started. Soğanlı, Ihlara, Açıksaray are locations where the same education system is seen later. The churches are painted in two types of techniques. The first is a painting made by directly smoothing the surface of the rock, and the second is a painting made on rock with the secco (tempera) and fresco techniques. The themes in the church are taken from the Bible and the life of Christ. In the Göreme Open - Air Museum, the Female and Male Monasteries, the St. Basil Church, the Elmali Church, the St. Barbara Church, the Yilanli Church, the Karanlik Church, the Carikli Church and the Tokali Church exist. The Monasteries of Priestesses and PriestsThe rock mass consisting of 6 - 7 floors located to the left of the museum entrance is known as "The Monastery of Priestesses". This monastery's dining hall, a kitchen, a few rooms on the first floor, a destroyed chapel on the second floor can be visited. Its church on the 3rd floor (that is reached through a tunnel) has a cross dome, four columns and three absissas. The templon in the main apsis is not met in other churches in Göreme. There are red ornaments beside the Christ fresco made directly on rock. "The bolt stones" are used for closing the tunnels in case of a danger as it was done in the underground cities. In the Monastery of Priests on the right, the passages between the floors are closed because of erosion, therefore only a few rooms on the entrance floor can be seen. |
