Selime Cathedral is in the Güzelyurt district of Aksaray, at the point where the Ihlara valley ends, with its churches, the caravan road and the fairy chimneys around it. The portal calls it the largest cathedral structure in Cappadocia, and dates it between the eighth and eleventh centuries.
It is cut into the rock and has two floors. Two rows of columns inside divide the building into three aisles. The cathedral is made up mostly of spaces built as churches and carries the marks of Byzantine art; its three-aisled basilica is described as the only representative of that plan type in the region.
The upper part was built as a fortress, and the walls and emplacements can still be seen. The Selime castle monastery matters as the place where the clergy of the region were trained, and it is recorded that the first service said aloud was held here.
The subjects most often treated in the frescoes on the church walls are the Ascension, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Massacre of the Innocents, the Flight into Egypt, the Pursuit of Elizabeth, the Baptism, the Virgin's first seven steps, the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple and the Dormition, along with depictions of bishops. The kitchen inside the cathedral is worth finding: pyramidal in shape, with niches cut for the lamps that lit it.
Getting there
- Access
- At Selime, 25 km from central Aksaray, with public transport from the centre every hour of the day.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Aksaray as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 0.6 °C in January to 23.6 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (46 mm) and lightest in August (6 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
