In the Footsteps of Paul: Day 6, Friday, February 6th

Goreme and the Zelve Valley in Cappadocia 

We were scheduled to have a pre-dawn hot air balloon trip to begin our day, but strong westerly winds  resulted in cancelation.  We might have ended up in Athens two weeks ahead of time.  So we reverted to our normal schedule, and after morning prayer and a lively discussion on Philippians 2:6-12, we drove to the Goreme Open Air Museum.  This is truly one of the worlds most astonishing wonders.  Dating from the 9th century onwards, 30 or more churches throughout the valley were built out of the soft volcanic tuff so the Cappadocians could worship without being persecuted by the invading Seljuk Turks. Six churches remain and we visited them all.

The Church of St. Barbara

Goreme is worthily a Unesco World Heritage Site, as some of these tiny cave churches, particularly the Dark Church and the Buckle Church, have walls and ceilings completely covered with spectacular Byzantine frescoes depicting the life of Christ and other scenes from the Bible.

Pilgrims at Goreme.

A view of Goreme from inside the Church of Sandals. 

Next, we devoted time to exploring Cappadocian culture and folk craft.  We visited Elifzu Turizm, a weaving cooperative that keeps the ancient Turkish tradition of rug making alive and well.  We also went to the new Guray Pottery Museum, which has a pottery collection stretching from 2000BC to 2000AD.

The master potter and the master weaver.

Late in the day, we hiked in the Valley of Zelve, where Cappadocians carved literally hundreds of homes, chapels, and monasteries inside the rock cliffs and pillars.

Pilgrims in Zelve Valley.                                             

The entrance to a church in Zelve.  

We ended our day with prayer and a presentation on the Cappadocian Fathers: Basil of Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa and their lifelong friend Gregory of Nazianzus.  These three men, active in the latter part of the 4th century, shaped the Church's thinking on the nature of the Trinity and the Incarnation.  It was their work that gave the Church its theological identity, which resulted in the statement of faith we stand and declare every time we gather for worship: the Nicene Creed.