Mustafapaşa

Mustafapaşa was Sinasos, a prosperous Greek Orthodox village whose men worked as caviar and fish merchants in Istanbul and sent the money home, and they spent it on houses: cut-stone mansions with carved doorways, window surrounds, cornices and courtyards, executed by skilled masons in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and unlike anything else in the region, where building usually meant digging into rock rather than dressing stone. The population left in the 1924 exchange and the village was resettled. What remains is the architecture, several churches - Ayios Vasilios, Ayios Konstantinos with its frescoed interior, the Holy Cross - a Seljuk medrese and rock chapels in the valleys around, notably the Gömede valley walk. Some mansions are now boutique hotels and the restoration has been careful in places, patchy in others. It is a short drive from Ürgüp and considerably quieter than Göreme.

What you actually see

• The carved mansions - dressed stone facades and doorways.
• The churches - Ayios Konstantinos and its frescoes.
• The Seljuk medrese - the portal on the village square.
• The valley walks - Gömede and the rock chapels nearby.

When to go

April to June and September to November. Weekdays are near-empty; the light on the carved stone is best late in the afternoon.

Honest expectations

Churches are often locked - ask at the tea house or the municipality for the key. Restoration is uneven and some mansions are in poor condition. Facilities are a few hotels and cafés.

Nearby

Ürgüp is six kilometres north; Soğanlı valley is south-east and Göreme west.