Location: 10 km (6 mi) Northeast of Nevsehir Map
Active: 9th- 13th century
Open: May- Oct: 8:30am- 7pm daily
Nov- Apr: 8:30am- 5:30pm daily
Zelve (also Eski Zelve) is a place consisting almost entirely of caves in the Turkish region of Cappadocia in the Nevşehir Province. The no longer inhabited place is now an open-air museum.
Zelve was probably already populated in Roman times and over time also served as accommodation for Byzantines, Seljuks, Ottomans, Greeks and Turks. In addition to various churches, there is also a mosque. It was only in 1953, after more and more of the caves collapsed due to earthquakes and erosion, that the last residents were relocated to a newly built village called Yeni Zelve (Neu-Zelve, today Aktepe) that was built with government help. In 1967 the site was declared a museum.
The area consists of three valleys, the walls of which are completely lined with caves that were carved into the soft tuff by the residents. These include apartments, utility rooms, churches and a large monastery complex. Almost all rooms are connected to each other by corridors and tunnels, some of which can be closed using the rolling stones typical of Cappadocian caves. Access is not easy; the external entrances sometimes involve steep stairs or just handles that are built into vertical walls. The inner connections are narrow passages, some of which go vertically through the rock and can only be climbed using steps and grips. The fairy chimneys and dovecotes with painted entrance holes that are typical of Cappadocia can also be found in Zelve. From the middle to the first (southern) valley, a tunnel over a hundred meters long, which is still accessible today, leads through the rock. A boulder between the first and second valleys, on which the Geyikli Kilise (Church with the Deer) was located, collapsed in 2002. Since then, parts of the site have been closed to visitors.
The churches are not as magnificently furnished as in Göreme, which
is why they are dated to the time of the icon dispute or shortly before
(8th to 9th centuries). They show simple paintings and relief jewelry
carved out of the rock. A sculpted cross can often be seen in
conjunction with archaic symbols. In the northern, third valley, there
is a double church, consisting of the Balıklı Kilise (Church with the
Fish) and the Üzümlü Kilise (Church with Grapes). The main room of the
former has three apses, on the ceiling there is a relief cross and on
the walls a cross medallion between two fishes. In addition to the
eponymous grape decoration, the Üzümlü Kilise also contains remains of
figurative representations, including a Madonna and child and the
archangels Gabriel and Michael above the entrance. In the valley
opposite is the badly damaged Direkli Kilise (pillared church).
There are blind niches on the walls of the Vaftızlı Kilise (baptismal
church) in the middle valley, and two crosses on the back wall. The now
collapsed Geyikli Kilise between the first and second valley had a
sculpted ceiling cross and an alleged depiction of a deer, which in
reality probably showed a lamb.
In the first valley, on the south
side, about ten meters high, there is a monastery in the wall, whose
small rooms with the narrow and winding connecting corridors form a
complex labyrinth. On the opposite side of the valley there is a mosque
with a barrel vault carved from the rock. The front facade and the
associated small minaret are the only brick buildings on the entire
site.