Karabulut Church (Zemi Valley)

Karabulut (“Black Cloud”) Church is a picturesque cave church in Göreme’s Zemi

Valley. The small church sits atop an isolated fairy chimney with six external graves
and carved rooms.

The church is accessible only by hiking from Göreme or the Nevşehir–Ürgüp

highway. The church is near Cistern Church, and here on Google Maps. It has no
door, so it is always open and free to enter. For this reason, the church has been the
recent victim of illegal excavations.

Architecture

Visitors enter the church by climbing the steep western face. The unique location
prohibits a narthex, so visitors enter through the small trapezoidal nave (three meters
by three meters), which has a short, flat ceiling. The room contains two floor graves
and a prothesis niche (north wall). Low benches and floral-painted rock molding line
both side walls. The apse has a low templon barrier. Backfill covers the entire
sanctuary floor and the lower walls. Older pictures do not reveal apse furniture.