Guide
The six- or seven-storey rock mass immediately to the left of the entrance to the Göreme Open Air Museum is known as the nuns' monastery. Be clear about how much of it can be seen: on the first floor the refectory, the kitchen and a few rooms are open, on the second a ruined chapel, and on the third the church, reached through a tunnel. That church has a cross dome, four columns and three apses, and the templon in its main apse is a feature not often found in the other churches at Göreme. Beside the fresco of Christ painted directly on the rock are red decorative patterns.
The floors of the monastery are connected by tunnels, and rolling stone doors were used to close those tunnels in an emergency, as in the underground cities. Immediately to the right is the monks' monastery, a four-storey structure in which erosion has closed the passages between the floors, so that only a few rooms on the entrance level can be visited. The two buildings together are also known locally as the girls' and boys' monasteries. Göreme is thirteen kilometres from Nevşehir, with minibuses every half hour and tour vehicles run by local agencies.
