It's warm autumn in Turkey, one of the best times to visit the country. In addition to this, Turkey offers extraordinary museums that symbolize the cities in which they live and also reveal the storied history of Anatolia.

Mysterious and strange cave church - Turkey Greme Open air Museum
We now know that many of these strange rocks in Cappadocia, Turkey, have been artificially hollow. The most famous cultural facilities related to the terrain and landform are the Greme open-air Museum. The Open Air Museum of Greme is a world cultural heritage, which is a cave building carved on the basis of natural landforms, the typical representative of which is the cave church.

The rocky valley hides a variety of cave buildings and cave churches, which is the famous open-air museum of Greme in Turkey

What Greme means is that you can't see the peculiar rock formations that hide these cave churches, built by Christians who fled here 2,000 years ago to escape the destruction of the Holy See.

Frescoes in stone caves were painted with lime on the walls and then painted with paint while wet. Most of the themes are stories from the Bible. During the iconoclastic movement, these frescoes were not spared, and the mutilated frescoes bear witness to a brutal history.

From the ticket office, along the cobblestone path, the first thing to see is the Church of Saint Brazil, one of the most important saints of Cappadocia. On the left side of the room is a picture of him, on the right is the Maltese cross, with scenes of St. George and St. Theodore slaying dragons, and on the right side of the apse, Mary holding Jesus.

Follow the path down to the Apple Church, which takes its name from a nearby apple tree, or from a mural depicting the Earth being misinterpreted as an apple. And then there's the Snake Church. Actually, he's more likely a dragon, followed by the most famous dark church. There are themes such as the birth of Jesus and the betrayal of Judas.

The interior of these churches is painted with colorful religious frescoes, which even now look very beautiful. But now photography is not allowed inside most of the beautifully frescoed churches in the Open Air Museum of Greme, and these photos were taken in the few cave churches that are allowed.

Dark church

The Dark Church of historic Cappadocia (Karanlik Kilise), one of Turkey's most famous tourist destinations, takes visitors back into the depths of history with centuries-old frescoes.
The church is located in the Open Air Museum of Goreme, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its frescoes are well preserved because very little light gets through a small window in the building's vestibule.

The original frescoes depicted scenes from the Bible, such as "The Last Supper," "The Journey to Bethlehem," "The Birth," "The Three Wise Men of the Bible," "Baptism," "The Resurrection of Lazarus," "The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem," "Jesus on the Cross," and "Abraham's Hospitality." The church was carved in soft tuff in the 11th century.

It is one of the few worship centers with murals of events described in the Bible and the Torah. Visitors can get information from church officials about the scenes depicted on the walls and ceiling. The church is an important destination for Christians, and foreign tourists visiting the area are very interested in the frescoes of the dark church, which take visitors back in time.
There are many historic churches in the area, but the murals of the dark church are the best preserved. Different scenes, from the birth of Jesus to his crucifixion are depicted here. The dark church has enormous significance."

"The Dark Church was closed until Cappadocia was open for tourism, and it was not exposed to daylight, which is why the frescoes are so intact." Daylight affects the color of the mural. The church underwent restoration work before it was opened for Tours. This place is different from other churches in the area because of its frescoes. Apart from that, all the other churches in the area portray Jesus as middle-aged, and it is only in this church that he is depicted as a young man."

It's interesting that the frescoes are so well preserved despite their age. I've visited different historical sites, but I've never seen one as well preserved as the Church of Darkness."