Cappadocia’s open-air museums: Göreme, Zelve and Paşabağ
Göreme Open-Air Museum and the Zelve-Paşabağlar archaeological site are open-air sites the Ministry of Culture and Tourism runs in Nevşehir province; Zelve and Paşabağ form one site. The table puts their hours, entry fees and distances from Göreme side by side, each from our records with its status.
Göreme, Zelve and Paşabağ side by side
Open-air museums in Cappadocia: opening hours, entry fee for foreign visitors, straight-line distance from Göreme and visit length, each from our records with its status.
Site | Opening hours | Entry, foreign visitors | From Göreme, straight line | Visit | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08:00–17:45 | €20 per person | 1 km | About 1 h 30 minSample data | ||
| 08:00–18:00 | €12 per person | 4 km | About 1 h 15 minSample data | ||
| 08:00–18:00 | €12 per person | 4 km | About 45 minSample data |
Göreme or Zelve?
Göreme Open-Air Museum
Göreme is about monastic life: rock-cut churches whose paintings show scenes from the Bible and the life of Jesus.
Zelve Open-Air Museum
Zelve is a village spread over valleys, with a mill, churches, a mosque and dovecotes; nobody knows when it was first settled.
Paşabağ (Monks Valley)
Paşabağ, on the same site as Zelve, is the valley of fairy chimneys carved into chapels and homes, one of them the chapel of St Simeon.
Photos: Bernard Gagnon, opens in a new tab, CC BY-SA 3.0, opens in a new tab; Bernard Gagnon, opens in a new tab, CC BY-SA 3.0, opens in a new tab; Theugursevinc, opens in a new tab, CC BY-SA 4.0, opens in a new tab
What does “open-air museum” mean here?
These are archaeological sites in the open: churches, chapels and homes carved into the rock, which you walk between outdoors.
Most of the visit is outdoors, between the carved buildings, so the weather matters more here than underground.
Open-air museums on a cancelled balloon morning
The wind or rain that keeps the balloons down can spoil an outdoor walk too, so the planner’s Plan B starts that day with indoor places, such as the underground cities, and leaves the open-air museums for later.
Each site in detail
The drive from Göreme to each, not counting parking and the walk in:
- Göreme Open-Air Museumabout 3 min by car
- Zelve Open-Air Museumabout 9 min by car
- Paşabağ (Monks Valley)about 7 min by car
Plan your days around these places
Going at opening? Choose your month, and the planner builds your days around opening hours and a balloon morning.