For the next two days we will head out at the crack of dawn for the open-air museums of Göreme, Zilve, and Ihlara. The greatest concentration of Middle Byzantine rock-cut churches are located in Göreme and these museums are visited by many tourists throughout the year—we shall elbow them aside, politely. After this, we load into our Fiat to trek along the bumpy farm roads from valley to valley and village to village in search of lesser-known rock-cut churches in Gülü Dere, Soğanlı, Güzelyurt, Mustafapaşa, Karlık, and Çavuşin. We will also stop at Açik Saray, a rock-cut ‘palace’ complex off the road between Nevşehir and Gülşehir. The places where we will be working are marked with red pins on the Google map; Avanos is marked in blue. Check our blog daily as we report our findings.
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