©nature

These are images from in and around the Goreme Open-Air Museum, a vast monastic complex composed of monasteries carved into the stones, each with its own fantastic church. 

The inside of the churches are decorated with an interesting mixture of religious frescos from the iconoclastic and post iconoclastic periods telling the New Testament stories. I particularly enjoyed the iconoclastic images that used symbols painted in red oche to tell the stories.

There is an interesting phenomena where a lot of the faces of the saints have been scratched out.  I was originally told by a guide that the iconoclasts scratched out the eyes and faces of the images although last night my host at the residency told me that this vandalism was a result of the Treaty of Lausanne and when the Greeks had to leave Turkey they scratched out the eyes of their saints so the images would not lay their eyes on anyone else and then I recently read that they eyes were scratched out by local people suspicious of the 'evil eye'.  Well, in any case, it is very odd to see a series of images with the faces or eyes violently destroyed.

Scattered through the valley were some more pigeon houses.  These structures were built in order to collect the droppings of the pigeons and use it as fertilizer. Very impressive in terms of the true understanding of recycling.

And here are a couple of other fantastical rock formations.

I find it fascinating that all these amazing shapes and forms were all made by nature. They are not the remains of engineering innovations of a great civilization nor do they have some kind of deeper symbolism or meaning, but are simply the result of  volcanic explosion, time, weather and erosion.  Bizarre, mesmerizing and perfect - with no help from us.