Today we plan to visit Goreme open air museum a UNESCO protected site with rock-cut churches and monasteries dating between the fifth and the 13th century. The earliest Christian settlements in Goreme date back to the first century. In the seventh century the Arab raids threatened the Christian population of Kayseri (Cesareea) who immigrated to the Goreme valley. They carved out churches, monasteries and hiding places. During the Iconoclastic period the walls of their churches were decorated only with symbols in red and black, later on they were replaced by polychrome figurative frescoes. Among the motifs used in the churches from the seventh to the ninth centuries are the tree of life, fish, rooster, grape, rabbit and devil. There is a blend of Christian and Anatolian symbols like that of a dot in a triangle, for example. The frescoes of the 9th to the 13th centuries the Post Iconoclastic Period are painted over the old ones which were covered with a plaster made of earth and straw. The colors of the old frescoes are more vivid but the new one are multi-colored and have realistic figures. There are over 400 churches in Goreme. In the Open air museum we visited the Apple Church, The Chapel of St. Barbara, the Church of the Serpent, the Dark Church, the Church of the Sandal, and the Buckle Church outside the museum area. In the picture you can see the Kizlar monastery carved and decorated between the 8th and the 13th centuries.