Göreme Valley consists of a spectacular landscape of cones, ravines and white cliffs. The natural beauty of the scenery here has been further embellished by man, who has dug more than 30 cave churches in the rock and decorated them with stunning frescoes. All of these churches were created in the 11C, during the golden age of the Macedonian dynasty, and each one fully deserves the World Heritage Site status awarded by UNESCO in 1985. This fragile heritage is unfortunately threatened by the large number of tourists who come here to visit this open-air museum.