secrets hidden in caves

The Göreme Open Air Museum has some of the loveliest cave churches in Cappadocia; two of the most famous being the Elmalı Kilise, or Apple Church (pictured above), and the Karanlık Kilise, the Dark Church (below). The vivid frescoes of the Apple Church date back to the 11th and 12th Centuries, and the intense, highly detailed scenes depicted in the Dark Church were painted during the end of the 12th Century. Imagine a small gathering of people in these spaces, worshiping under the stern gazes of saints illuminated by candlelight— imagine the artists and the architects carving arches and columns out of stone, painting in the little light that a cave allows.



Waves of tourists from all corners of the globe look up at those same saints, now bathed in electric light.