Pancarlik valley lies to the south of Ortahisar, and to the right of the road leading from Urgup to Mustafapasa. Travelling south from Mustafapaşa to Soğanlı you will pass a turning on the right that leads to the Pancarlik Valley, one of Cappadocia‘s many under-visited valleys. Not only is the scenery spectacular, with undulating ridges of pink rock and dollops of meringue-like white rock, but there are three rock-cut churches to visit here too.
Most important of these churches is the Pancarlik Church, a monastic church housed inside a group of rock cones. The flat ceiling of the church is still completely covered with frescoes in which reds and greens predominate as is the upper part of the small apse and large parts of the north and south walls. Even when the church is locked you can still see these paintings through the grille gate.
The church has one nave, one apse and a flat ceiling. The frescoes in this church are well preserved, and most of them are painted on a green background. At first glance it appears that two different artists were responsible for the paintings, but on closer inspection it is apparent that the same artist painted all the frescoes. In the church, the scenes from the Bible follow one another in sequence and portraits of saints in insets border these scenes on both sides. The church dates back to the first half of the 11th century.
Inside this cone shaped rock is a Pancarlik Church and Monastery. The frescoes are in excellent condition and finished off in green and absolutely beautiful.
Pancarlik Church
This is perhaps one of the key highlights of Turkey. There are lots of these cave dwellings located all over this region. In fact, many of them are not inhabited by anyone.
Pancarlik Church is most important and interesting, a monastic church housed inside a group of rocks.