The cave churches

These church are the most amazing part of Cappadocia. They were not built, but were carved out of the rocks and painted. The vaulted, painted, curved, and intricate architecture are so beautiful. Most of them were hidden. But the designs are truly outstanding. They were carved about a few hundred years after Christ's death

You can see the drawing of Christ in the top of the ceiling. It is very detailed and getting pictures of it was very difficult.
The twelve apostles.




This must have been so beautiful 2000 years ago. Can you believe it is so well preserved.

Our guide is leading us down a tunnel. We were headed down to the seventh level underground.

She would just smile. Easy to do when you only way 100 lbs and are 24. How they ever lived for months underground in these caves is beyond belief. But they did it.

This is Duard pretending he was Samuel preaching on the wall (hey, wasn't that the book of mormon)

This was a teaching room in a monastery. The benches are on the sides. The teacher would walk back and forth down the middle. There were also instruction rooms off to the sides.

(Remember this was carved out of a big rock or mountain, not build) All the walls carved.

When we came across a baptismal font, our guide said, "Do you want to baptize me?" Of course Du said yes. Too bad there was no water - we really could use more members.