Another crowded place, but still worth visiting, is the Zelve Open-Air Museum (🎫 65 TRY – valid also for Fairy Chimneys,🅿️ – 25 TRY), where three valleys of crumbling cave-habitations and churches converge. Zelve was a monastic retreat from the 9th to the 13th century and then a village. The valleys were inhabited until 1952 when they were deemed too dangerous to live in, and the villagers were resettled a few kilometers away in Aktepe, also known as Yeni Zelve (New Zelve). An excellent walking trail loops around the valleys allowing access to the various caverns, although erosion continues to eat into the valley structures, and certain areas are cordoned off due to rockfalls.
