Dosseman · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & license
Zelve Open-Air Museum
Zelve Open-Air Museum is an abandoned rock village and monastery fabric spread across three valleys on the northern slope of Aktepe.
The museum account places a bulgur mill, the Balıklı and Üzümlü churches and a winery in the first valley, the Holy Cross church in the second, and a village square, a monastery cut into a dome-like rock and a mosque opposite it in the third. Pigeon houses carved into the high slopes at the end of the valley, plus the Direkli Church at the exit, make Zelve a slice of a whole settlement rather than a list of chapels.
Why visit
Come to Zelve to see a monastery, a mosque and pigeon houses following one another inside the same rock village.
Walk Zelve through to the third valley, because the pigeon-house facades and the Direkli Church come after the churches of the first valley.
