Byzantine Eusthatios Cave Church

Eustathios Cave Church in the Valley of Erdemli. The valley contains a Byzantine settlement from the 9th to 13th century. The main complex is the Saray Manastırı (palace monastery) with a decorated facade, a big cave church and several spaces on the bottom of the valley. Hundreds of caves with several cave churches and a cave mosque are dug into the hillsides. The Eustathios Cave Church was presumably the best decorated one. After leaving the settlement, the caves were used by shepherds to house their animals. Parts of the frescoes were deliberately cut off and fire covered them with soot. The soot formed a protective layer that hid the frescoes in the dark cave. Normally I try to create panoramas as natural as possible. But here I needed a lot of photoshop work, because I wanted to show the frescoes behind the dark grime. My homepage also shows the natural looking version, which is brightened up because I had to use a flash to bring some light into the darkness. - Although it is a historically unique place, there is no guardian or any kind of protection. Every culturless barbarian can unnoticed live out his or her desire for destruction and deprive mankind of irreplaceable cultural heritage. N.B.: Someone carved the word KAFIRLER in the fresco. This means unbelievers and is often used by Muslims for Christians and Jews. This contradicts the Koran, which protects Christians and Jews as followers of predecessor religions.

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Europe / Turkey

Lat: 38° 24' 53.4" N
Long: 35° 4' 10.98" E

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Precision is: Unknown / Undeclared.

Canon EOS 6D, Tamron SP 24-70mm @ 24mm, Panoramahead Novoflex VR-System Pro, Rotator Nodal Ninja RD16, Nodal Ninja EZ Leveler II, Novoflex Triopod, Canon 540EZ Flash