May 27, 2013 Cappadocia - Zelve open air museum and Goreme open air museum

Today we visit the two open air museums which feature the fairy towers and the ancient Churches (now museums) built inside the towers.
We stopped at a tourist shop and restaurant to buy bottled water, souvenirs, take photos and see the fairy towers from the restaurant patio.
The view of the valley is like looking at a moonscape.

We then got back on the bus for our first museum visit which was the

ZELVE OPEN AIR MUSEUM  http://www.goreme.com/zelve-open-air-museum.php.

We started out as a group hiking on the guided path which led us up and down gentle hills and staircases past these towers. Some of the rooms were open so we could go in and inspect them and others roped off. We spend about 1 1.2 hrs hiking around the loop enjoying the scenery and beauty of the area. Afterwards our group gathered and hopped on the bus for the ride to the Goreme open air museum. 

http://www.goreme.com/goreme-open-air-museum.php features a lot of small churches inside the tuft complexes and some of them are named after the image on the doorway such as the Church of the Apple and the Snake.

The highlight is to visit the Dark Church (extra admission) which is accessed by climbing a metal staircase to get to the entrance and then going in a tunnel to see the room which is the Church.

What is amazing to me are the old fresco icons which are well preserved but the fact that all the icons seem the same whether you see them in an old church in Turkey or Greece or Cyprus.

After our visit here we walked down a ways to the Church of the Buckle which was well preserved and had a lot of beautiful fresco icons.

Lunch was at the Altinocak restaurant in in Avanos. It was in a large cave carved into the tuft material. We sat at a large circular table and watched the waiters prepare our lunch which consisted of a soup, salad, meat dish cooked in a dough sealed tureen and fruit.

It was very tasty and filling.

After visiting the museums we were taken to a Turkish carpet weaving cooperative where workers weave traditional Turkish silk and wool carpets. The cooperative is supported by the Turkish government who pays for all the taxes and shipping of the carpets to Europe and the US when they are purchased by tourists.

We were treated to tea, water and raki as we watched the salespeople unroll carpet after carpet in a synchronized manner and then taken to smaller rooms to make our purchases.

At the end of the day we were driven back to the Peri Tower hotel to have a delicious buffet dinner.

Tomorrow is a drive to an old monastery carved in the stone/tuft and then a stop at an old church before returning to the hotel.