The Cyrillic alphabet

4 of us did the long walk today going from the hotel to Godievo Lake past 4 reservoirs that provide water for the irrigation of gardens and vegetable plots. Apart from a few short, sharp showers, the weather was good and the mountains all around us looked spectacular.

At Godievo there is a chapel built in the woods and we understand that Bulgarians worship here on special days once or twice a year. The building is quite new, as are the internal and external frescos.

Inside the saints depicted include Saint Cyril and his brother Saint Methodius. More information below if you want it. I'm wondering if the mural you see in this image is of Elijah being raised up in a chariot. Any thoughts?

We walked 20km which sounds better than 12 miles!

Stop now unless you want to know about Cyrillic, in which case, read on:

The Cyrillic alphabet is currently in use by several eastern European languages, primarily Russian, and also Serbian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Byelorussia, Macedonian. This set of characters is usually attributed to St. Cyril (827-869), who, along with his brother St. Methodius (826-884), was sent from Thessalonica, Greece, by Emperor Michael III to Christianize the Khazars. The Khazars were a Tatar people of the Balkan region (now Slovakia) who practiced Judaism. It is apparent that the missionary effort was not very successful, since the Khazars were probably the source population of much of European Jewry.

As a royal commission, Cyril was directed to create a Slavonic alphabet as a church standard from the mélange of Greek, Hebrew, old Latin, and various rogue characters in common use in the Ninth century. Cyril did indeed create an alphabet, but it was far from the Cyrillic for which he is credited. It was the Glagolitic alphabet, derived in part from Greek, but also containing some entirely new forms. The design of the letters was artistic, and, as shown below, had strong resemblances to church architecture in form. The illustration shows only a portion of the entire alphabet, with their Latin letter equivalents.