Gümüşler Monastery

Gümüşler is cut into a rock face around a large open courtyard, and the complex - church, chapels, kitchen, storage rooms, tombs, cisterns and living quarters, on two levels connected by cut stairs and a tunnel - is one of the best preserved of its kind, having escaped both the erosion and the tourism that shaped the Göreme valleys. The main church has a barrel-vaulted nave on four piers and frescoes from around the tenth and eleventh centuries in unusually good condition, with a Nativity, an Annunciation and a Deesis. Its famous detail is the Virgin in the apse composition, whose mouth carries what reads as a slight smile - very rare in Byzantine iconography, where the Theotokos is almost invariably solemn, and the reason the site is known at all beyond Niğde. There are also secular paintings of animals and hunting in one chamber. It is eight kilometres from Niğde and sees few visitors.

What you actually see

• The smiling Virgin - the apse fresco the site is known for.
• The rock church - barrel vault on four cut piers.
• The courtyard complex - kitchen, tombs and living rooms.
• The animal paintings - secular decoration in a side chamber.

When to go

April to June and September to November. Any time of day - it is rarely busy. The interior is dim; frescoes are best in bright conditions outside.

Honest expectations

Photography inside may be restricted. The interior is unlit and dim. It is small - an hour covers it - and there is little interpretation beyond a panel or two.

Nearby

Niğde's Seljuk mosques and museum are eight kilometres away; the Aladağlar and Cappadocia are within reach by car.