Fairy Chimneys in Urgup and Mustafapasha Village

Mustafapasa Village or Sinasos in Greek is located about 10 km from Goreme and the town is very famous with its’ huge mansions with elaborately carved door and window-frames. Most of them are dating back to early 19th century and belonged to Greek families. Back then, many local families were working in Istanbul on fish trade and sending their money back to enrich their birthplace. The houses were actively used until 1924 when population exchange had happened between Greeks and Turks. All the Christian citizens from this village and all over Turkey had to leave their country to Greece as well as all the Turkish Muslim citizens in Greece had to move out from Greece to Turkey because of the same population compulsory. According to the officials, about 1.2 million Christians left Turkey while about 600.000 people came from Greece.

While Sinasos was a village with more than 5000 citizens in 1923, it has become a deserted village with about 1700 people who arrived at the population exchange. The people coming from Greece were accommodated in the houses of Greek villagers who left their villages. As the number of people arriving to the village was much less than the people left from the village, most of the houses were abandoned and nobody is still using these houses. Most of the houses were unfortunately left to the mercy of the weather for decades.

The village has 3 beautiful churches called as Constantine and Helena Church, The Church of St. Basil and The Church of St. Nicholas. The Church of Constantine and Helena is located at the center of the village and is an important place as there are special rituals done by the patriarch every year. The church is dating back to 1729 and it has been restored in 1851. The façade of the building has beautiful reliefs showing some angels, dragons and eagles. The church of St. Basil is a little out of the village and has some modern frescoes from 19th century. The original paintings and the plan of the building have been completely repainted and recut in 19th century. The church and monastery of St. Nicholas is located in the beginning of the valley and has been completely restored a few years ago.