Göreme Valley, Cappadocia

The Göreme Valley holds the region's greatest concentration of rock-cut chapels and also best collection of painted cave-chapels. Medieval orthodox Christian monks (1000-1200 AD) carved the caves from the soft volcanic stone and decorated them with elaborate Byzantine frescoes. We visited each chapel but I could not take photos since it was dark inside and we had to use no flash otherwise it would damage the paintings. There were large kitchen and storage room, and we could see a large dining table for 50 monks to dine together.

Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia is inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 1985.