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New Images Of Jesus On Frescoes Never Seen Before Discovered In Ancient Turkish Church [Video]

By Dee Sharp
Published on: 18:07 PST, Jan 30, 2016

After the discovery of an ancient church in Turkey, found in an underground city, images of Jesus that have never been seen before were found in frescoes in the church.

The church was discovered by archaeologists who were excavating the underground city. The excavation effort was part of the Nevsehir Castle Urban Transformation Project, which was started by the Nevsehir Municipality and Turkey’s Housing Development (TOKI). The video above, which was posted almost two years ago, gives a tour of the massive underground city in Turkey.

According to an article by Hurriyet Daily News, the frescoes of never before seen images of Jesus were found in the rock-carved church. The underground church is located inside a castle in the center of Nevsehir which spreads over an area of 360,ooo square meters. The article says the church is in a “third-degree archaeological site that includes 11 neighborhoods in the city center. Some of the images of Jesus were described by Nevsehir Mayor Hasan Unver as told to HDN.

“It is reported that some of the frescoes here are unique. There are exciting depictions like fish falling from the hand of Jesus Christ, Him rising up into the sky and the bad souls being killed.”

The church and frescoes were discovered in the city of Cappadocia and Unver said that frescoes like this have never been seen in any other church. He added that preliminary studies show the church may date back to the 5th century A.D. “This place is even bigger than the other historical churches in Cappadocia. It was built underground and has original frescoes that have survived to this day,” he said.

“We didn’t even think of finding such a structure when we first started works. But excavations and cleaning work are continuing and we hope to find new data relating to the history of Cappadocia.”

Cappadocia is a pilgrimage center and the mayor hopes that the city can become an “even bigger pilgrimage center of Orthodoxy.”

Archaeologist Ali Aydin described how efforts were being taken in order to preserve the frescoes due to exposure to humidity. He said that the humidity in the church was dried up slowly to prevent damage to the frescoes.

“We have stopped work in order to protect the wall paintings and the church. When the weather gets warmer in the spring, we will wait for humidity to evaporate and then we will start removing the earth.”

Aydin noted that the side walls of the church were still underground and the frescoes there could still be intact. He also said that the real entrance to the church had been found but it had not been exposed yet.

The underground city is thought by many historians to have been used by early Christians to hide underground during the widespread persecution of Christians after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the early years of Christianity. The amazing network of tunnels were part of “fairy chimneys,” which were cone-like formations created over time by the erosion of the soft volcanic ash around them. People dug into these formations to create dwellings and cities that were used as hiding places by early Christians.

What do you think about the exciting discovery of new images of Jesus found on frescoes, and what do you think of the underground cities in Turkey? Please share your comments below.

[Image Credit: Firdes Sayilan/Shutterstock]

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