Aciksaray

About

Acik Saray was built sometime in the 10th or 11th centuries. The complex covers 1 sq kilometer, and is broken into 8 ‘buildings’, each gathered around 3-sided courtyards. Acik Saray literally means ‘Open Palace’, and while there’s no records of any royal involvement, the beautifully decorated facades facing each courtyard are unlike any other cave settlement. As an open-air museum, visitors are free to explore the church, wineries, stables, kitchens, and sleeping quarters. Along with its cave-dwellings, the village is famed for the odd rock formations in the area, such as the mushroom-shaped rock that’s now the symbol of nearby Gulsehir.