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. Here we are in a small side alcove. The fragments of the ancient frescoes lie on the floor like pieces of a puzzle. 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. The dark background shows the main cave and how it really looks like. It can be found in my "Once upon a time" contibution:https://worldwidepanorama.org/wwp318/HeinerStraesser-9292.html and on my project-page: http://derpanoramafotograf.com/EN/projects/erdemli.php

Europe / Turkey

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

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Medium. Nearby, but not to the last decimal.

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