Goreme Open Air Museum and a Fresh Guard, Goreme, Turkey

The Goreme Open Air Museum was kind of a memorable bit in my time in Cappadocia. Not because of the site itself but because one of the guards seriously thought I’d just fallen off the back of a turnip truck. It was both entertaining and insulting and in my own little way, I got my revenge. That is the problem with working in an office most days – you very quickly learn to deal with idiots and not always in a nice way. One of the reasons I try to escape my cubicle as often as possible…

The Goreme Open-Air Museum is a UNESCO World Heritage site; it’s a pretty large monastic complex carved from the Cappadocian soft volcanic rock. Many of the buildings date back as far as the 10th century, developed by orthodox Christian monks of the time who really loved Byzantine art. There are a number of little churches named after saints (St. Barbara) or fruit (Apple Church) or animals (Snake Church), or even clothes items (Buckle Church) with fascinating Byzantine frescoes whose colours can still be surprisingly strong. However, most frescoes are damaged either because of the elements, earthquakes, light, and people over time who have defaced the paintings for various reasons. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).