The next couple of days, we managed to visit a few of the sites in and around Mustafapasa on Eor.  Ürgüp with its castle, monastery valley, Cemil village and Keşlik Monastery. Keslik was certainly a highlight and once inside, I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Nothing is quite what you expect it to be, labyrinth of a place with 16 houses where hundreds of monks lived. Inside the dwellings fireplaces, bookshelves and grey nicks left on the rock by metal chisels.

Mustafapasa Village

Like many other small villages of Turkey, Mustafapasa in the central Cappadocia region of Turkey is steeped in Greek Orthodox history, specifically the Ottoman years before the Turkish War of Independence in the early 20th century, when Turks and Greeks lived side by side in harmony.  Walking around Mustafapasa, that was previously called Sinasos (meaning city of the sun), apart from a few locals gathered in tea shops and in the town square, it was pretty quiet. It was not hard to spot the Greek influence, namely in the houses and in the Church of Saint Nicholas.

Cemil Village

Almost all the towns and villages in the area are built – or rather burrowed – to the same architectural blueprint: hollowed-out dwellings, scooped directly from the soft volcanic tuff. Home to numerous civilisations over the centuries (the Assyrian, Hittite, Roman and Byzantine empires are some of the cultures that have occupied the area), these small outposts are the result of a complex and interminable mingling of influences.

Keslik Monastery

Keşlik monastery is located close to Mustafapaşa. The monastery was built in volcanic tuff stone and used in the Byzantine era until the end of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s. Hollowed out in the 13th century, Keşlik monastery, also known as the Monastery of Archangels, has retained two churches and its refectory.

The Black Church has two parallel naves, both of which end in an apse. Unfortunately the frescoes in this church have been blackened with smoke over the centuries and are difficult to make out. Next to it is the refectory, a huge room which could house 100 people and which is divided in two spaces by arcades. Dug out from the rock in the 9th century, the Church of St Stephen is situated 50 m from the monastery. The most beautiful frescoes, painted in shades of bright yellow and orange, can be seen in this church.

Due to many robbers and military conflicts in the region, the monks also had a safe room and when they were in danger, they could close the door by a big and heavy millstone and escape through a tunnel under the monastery and garden.

Fun exploring the rabbit warren

Ürgüp Village

When Ürgüp’s Greek population was evicted in 1923 the town’s wealth of stone cut houses was left teetering into gentle dilapidation until tourism began to take off. Now, more than 90 years later, these remnants of another era have found a new lease of life as some of Cappadocia’s most luxurious boutique hotels. Thankfully, the castle and cave cliff are still undeveloped and not converted in to a room…yet!