Sümela Manastırı

Taken inside the Sümela Manastırı.

After staying in Trabzon, northern Turkey, on the shore of the Black Sea, we headed out and up into the hills the following morning to see the Sümela Manastırı, built into the side of a cliff in the Black Mountains, ~1200m above sea level.

Across the years and the wars and the passing of time, the monastery has been vandalised and weather beaten, abandoned and evacuated, seized and let to crumble. Over time, people from all cultures worldwide it would seem from the graffiti and scratchings, have found it entertaining to carve words and names and obscenities into the walls, the doors and worst of all the beautiful painted frescoes along the front of many of the courtyard buildings in the back of the Monastery, chipping faces off scenes and obscuring them with mundane idiocies.

Recently though, the Turkish government, in a bid to boost tourism, has begun restoration work on this wonderful site, and it's a fascination to walk around.

Here's the Wiki link, if you fancy more information;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumela_Monastery



Canon EOS 40D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM.