Zelve: a mystical Museum of Church Priests, or Smurf Valley in reality?😱⛰️🫒🪨🍂

During our trip to Cappadocia, we discovered a place that seemed to come out of a fairy tale: the Zelve Open Air Museum. This fascinating place, located between Göreme and Avanos, gave us an unforgettable experience of surreal landscapes and unique historical testimonies.

Before entering the museum, the view opens up to a wide valley that seems to have emerged from a geometric dream. The rock formations here take on incredible shapes: petrified waves, natural zigzags and pointed triangles, alternating as if in a dance sculpted by the wind and time. This seemingly empty space is actually full of details. There is a certain solemn calm to it, but also a visual richness that changes with every step. It is a landscape that makes you feel small, but at the same time deeply inspired.

A natural composition that seems to be specially created for contemplation and adventure. We were so enthralled by the surrounding beauty that after a few minutes we began to come to our senses and realize what was around us, and how. We were fascinated by the majestic rocks that line the hilly terrain, smoothly transitioning into high mountains, with colors that shimmer from red to orange and pastel peach, creating an almost Martian atmosphere.

The rocks of Zelve consist mainly of volcanic tuff, a soft material that is easily formed, as a result of volcanic eruptions that occurred millions of years ago. This special composition allowed the inhabitants to dig houses, churches and tunnels directly into the rock. Here's a rich and fascinating history. Since the 9th century, Zelve has become an important Byzantine monastic center, hosting one of the first Christian communities in the region.

The monks lived in caves dug into the rock, creating a complex of churches, houses and places of worship. Later, during the Ottoman period, Zelve was transformed into a village, inhabited until 1952, when it was abandoned due to erosion and the risk of collapse. The site extends over three valleys, connected by paths and tunnels. We started our exploration in the first valley, where we rummaged and climbed between the cave dwellings. There were two of the most characteristic stones with interesting windows and even in one there was an opening like a shelf, a kind of apartment for that time.

And we climbed to take interesting photos and in the same opening, there were so many small square holes like shelves for different things for the person who lived there.
And also, a little higher up, we found a very cool, largest cave in which there were actually several rooms that you could actually climb into, but unfortunately it was very dirty and there was a very strong unpleasant smell. The second valley was even more mysterious and diverse. There were several large square holes that we tried to climb into. Even in the photos you can see how funny it looked, but my sister did it much more professionally and I even helped her by pushing her in her arms so that she could climb into a certain cave.

In one of the caves we even found a grave and it was really very scary. It was especially interesting how we found another such hole and it was so interesting to sit on it, probably Darine will show in her post later. And the third valley was the most dynamic. I ran and jumped over ditches and climbed to the highest parts and explored all kinds of interesting plants.

In some places, the climbs were steep and required a bit of courage, but the view from above and the feeling of walking through centuries of history paid off all the effort. To be honest, I don't really like movement, because I'm a very lazy person. But this place inspired me to actively run around the hills. When we were really cold and were about to turn back, my sister and I had a spontaneous idea to still conquer one of the peaks of these peat rocks.

The climbs and slopes seem very smooth, but in reality they are quite steep and it is difficult to climb them because they are slippery. And so I have to climb with my feet very wide apart and it was really such a challenge. Later my sister also wanted to climb there, although I was not happy about it because I always worry about her very much. But again there were very extraordinary and stunning shots from the top of the hill.

We took some inadequate selfies. And later we didn't even know how to get down from the top. Although from this top there's much better visible that this place looks like kind of real Smurf town.

I tried very hard to take all the photos as best as possible in terms of quality and brightness and I hope that with my efforts I was able to convey the magic and uniqueness of this unreal place. Thank you for your attention and for reading 🙏🏻