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The deserted monastery complex in the three valleys of ZELVE (daily 8am-5.30pm; $4), a few kilometres north of Goreme off the Avanos-Cavusin road, is accessible by an hourly dolmus from Goreme. The churches here date back to before the ninth century, but until 1952 the valley was inhabited by troglodyte Turkish Muslims, who hacked their dwellings out of the tufa rock face. On the left-hand side of the first valley, about halfway up, are the remains of a small Ottoman mosque, the prayer hall and mihrab of which are partly hewn from the rock, and a large number of chapels and medieval oratories are scattered up and down the valleys, many of them decorated with carved crosses. A thorough exploration really requires a torch: some of the rooms are entered by means of precarious steps, others by swinging up through holes in the floors, and, on occasion, massive leaps to a lower floor - good fun if you're reasonably energetic and have a head for heights.
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