Cave Churches in Goreme Open Air Museum Cappadocia

Cave Churches in Goreme Open Air Museum Cappadocia,

Church With A Snake (Yilanli Kilise)
One of the interesting churches in Goreme is the Church with a Snake. This church does not have pillars and domes. It has an arch shaped ceiling and the pictures are made on the sides of it. There is also a grave in the Church. You can see Constantine and Helen holding the Cross with their left hands on the left walls of the entrance. The picture near this shows the fight of St. George and St. Theodore and there are pictures of St. Basil, St. Thomas and Onouphrios on the right side. According to the saying: Onouphrios was a very beautiful woman and was bored with men distracting her, so she prayed God for her salvation. God answered her praying and gave her a beard and she became ugly. You can notice that she appears as a man and half a woman.

Church With A Buckle (Tokali Kilise)
It is the biggest church in this region. built in the 11th century. It is called the Church with a Buckle because it has a buckle on the ceiling. Even though this buckle disappeared for unknown reason its location is still evident. There is a big apsis across the entrance and two small asides on the sides. On the sides and in front of the apsis, there are four pillars. More pictures were made in this church because it is wide and large.
The pictures mostly symbolize the miracles accomplished by Jesus Christ. The pictures in the church are the following: A picture symbolizing Gabriel announcing to Mary that she will bear the Christ, the exodus of Joseph, Mary and Jesus to Egypt, Yahya (John the Baptist) baptizing Jesus, Lazarus’ resurrection, the Last Supper, Jesus’ crucifixion, Jesus being taken down from the Cross, the treachery of Judas, one of the Apostles and many other paintings.