Mustafapasa and around

The small village of MUSTAFAPAŞA, 6km south of Ürgüp, makes for a pleasant excursion or, with your own transport, a good base from which to explore the region. The charm of the place lies in the concentration of attractive konaks with carved house-facades dating back a century or so, when it was known as Sinasos and home to a thriving Greek community; it is also central to a cluster of little-visited churches. Unfortunately, a paucity of public transport makes Mustafapaşa an awkward base unless you have your own transport.

The church of Ayios Vasilios is located to the north of the village, and is well signposted from the centre of town; pick up the key from the makeshift tourist office on the main square. The church has well-preserved frescoes, although the faces are damaged, and four rock-cut pillars. Another church, below Ayios Vasilios in the Üzengı Dere ravine, is the Holy Cross, partly rock-cut and partly masonry-built, with pre-Iconoclastic and tenth-century paintings including a most attractive Christ of the Second Coming.

Back on the main square is the Aios Konstantine Eleni Kilisesi, a church dedicated to Constantine and his mother St Helena with nineteenth-century frescoes. On the other side of the village, passing through streets of houses cut by former Greek occupants into the tuff cliffs, is a monastery complex including the churches of Aya Nicolas and Aya Stefanos.