ABSTRACT
We saw in Chapter 2 that the aspects of Cappadocia marked off in tourism images and myths are its ‘lunar’ landscape, its Christian (Byzantine) history and the contemporary troglodyte way of life in villages such as Göreme. The growth of tourism has led to an aesthetic valuing of all of these features, and has hence served to promote their preservation. Much of the preservation and restoration work, such as retouching frescoes and filling cracks in the rock to prevent rainwater from further weakening the structure, is focused on the caved Byzantine churches in and around the Göreme Open-Air Museum site, and is funded jointly by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and UNESCO.
