Göreme Açıkhava Müzesi

Göreme National Park - Göreme Open-Air Museum

Useful Information

Location:	İsali - Gaferli - Avcılar, 50180 Göreme/Nevşehir Merkez/Nevşehir Around the village Göreme, east of Nevsehir. The Göreme Open-Air Museum is located to the east at the road to Ortahisar. (38.639976, 34.845307)
Open:	All year daily 8-20, last entry19:15. [2025]
Fee:	Adults TL 5,000,000, Children (0-18) TL 2,200,000, Disabled free.
Classification:	Cave House
Light:	not necessary/electric/bring torch.
Dimension:	Ar=95,76 km².
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Gaferli Mah. Müze Cad. Göreme Açıkhava Müzesi Bilet Gişesi Göreme/NEVŞEHİR, Tel: +90-3842712167. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

4th century	first caves dug.
1100	Yilanli church and Barbara church built.
1200	Çarikli church built.
1967	open air museum opened to the public.
1984	inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
1986	dedicated a National Historic Park.

Description

The Göreme Açıkhava Müzesi (Goreme Open-Air Museum) is a patch of the typical tufa hills and towers in the area of the city Göreme. It began already in the 2nd century when ascetic monks started to live as hermits in small caves. Soon the area became an important religious center. The Cappadocian Fathers, the Bishop of Kaisareia, Basil, his brother Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus were renowned during the 3rd century. Basil returned from Constantinople to Kaisareia to devote himself to the monastic life. As a result the monastic lifestyle spread in the area, from the 4th century to the 13th century the whole area was covered by monasteries.

Göreme Milli Parklar (Göreme National Park) has a size of 95.76 km² and is covered with volvcanic ashes, forming layers of soft tufa. In this area a harder layer of lava covers a softer layer of tufa. Erosion cut through the hard layer and had little problems to remove the soft rocks very fast. Only where some remains of the resistant rock still covers the tufa, it still exists and forms pillars, towers and needles. The height of those rock pillars, called fairy chimneys, may be up to 40 m. The valley is also called Valley of the Fairy Chimneys. The geological specialty is the reason for all the cave houses in the area: it was quite easy to dig a room into the soft tufa, nevertheless the house was protected by the covering hard layer. It was much easier to build a cave house than to build a normal house on the surface.

The open air museum is not in the modern city Göreme, it is a little outside. The former monasteries were not used by the people, although they were abandoned. Probably it was respect for the churches, or there was simply no need for those caves. The area had very little tourism in the mid 20th century, and it is unclear why the government opened the open air museum in 1967. Probably to create a few jobs, probably to draw tourists. The area became known, the number of visitor increased, and finally the city became the center of tourism.

The open air museum protects a small area which is only 400 m long and 200 m wide, but on this small patch there are eleven refectories with tables and benches and each with an associated church. This includes the Girls and Boys Monastery, St. Basil’s Church, Elmalı Church, Saint Barbara Church, Serpent Church, Malta Crusader Church, Dark Church, Saint Catherine Church, Çarıklı Church and Tokalı Church. Many churches have impressive frescoes which were painted with two distinct techniques, either directly on the rock surface or in fresco-secco technique. The longest underground structure at the museum is 1,325 m long.