Work underway for underground museum

NEVŞEHİR

Works have almost ended in the Cappadocia History and Culture Museum, being built in the Avanos district of Nevşehir.

The museum, which is being built underground by carving volcanic tuff rocks, will be home to endemic plants. It is set to open in the 2020 tourism season.

The construction of the museum started last year in January in the popular tourism center of Cappadocia, and the museum will shed light on the past by offering millions of years old fossils, ethnographic and thematic exhibitions and visual feast to the visitors in a natural environment underground.

The 50,000-square-meter museum will include a welcome area and a car parking place, restaurant, treatment plant and outdoor sightseeing areas. There will be an exhibition area of 500 square meters consisting of seven separate sections to tell the history of Cappadocia, as well as a library, multi-purpose conference hall, documentary watching rooms and playgrounds for children.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, the museum construction official Baran Kızılkaya said that works had been going on non-stop, and the museum will open in the summer next year.

Stating that the tourists coming to the museum will feel themselves in a different environment and be impressed by the area, he added, “We believe that this museum, which has no other examples in the world, will have a positive impact on the number of visitors coming to the Cappadocia region and will provide a leap for tourism in the region.”

Kızılkaya said that the tuff rocks extracted from the carved parts of the museum were used in landscaping and construction of additional buildings in the area, thus a complete recycling was made.

“This is a museum that will be the first in the world. It is a very special place in terms of both being underground and growing endemic plants. We want everyone visiting here to experience historical moments at that time. So, we are working to build a museum in a mechanical style away from technology. The museum area was opened with the help of tools such as drill and anchor. This place was used as a quarry in the 1980s, and we continue working by keeping the texture of those years alive. It is a complete recycling project. We have created a welcoming and restaurant section with the stones coming out from here. Stones from excavations will also be used in landscaping,” Kızılkaya said.