Göreme open-air museum - Apple Church (Elmalı Kilise)

This church, featuring four columns, nine domes and three apses, is of the closed cruciform type. Access to the church is through a tunnel on the north side. The original entrance was on the south side. The church has been dated back to the mid 11th century and the beginning of the 12th century. The interesting name probably derives from a red orb held by St. Michael the Archangel in a fresco near the entrance, but an alternative theory is that an apple tree used to grow next to it.

15 scenes are seen in the church about Jesus´s life. Three of them are of his childhood, 2 of them are of his adult life and the other 10 are of his suffering periods. In the central dome there is a figure of Jesus Pantokrator.
(Location: Göreme)

Uploaded by slavica on 5/4/2009, viewed 2352 times.