Fascinating News: 13th Century Byzantine Chapel Found

I threw this into social media, but must blog on it here, because I don’t want anyone to miss this story: Under Turkish Mud Well, Preserved Byzantine Chapel Found.

It’s in Myra! Home of Saint Nicholas! And look!

(Photo source Myra-Andriake Excavations via NY Times)

After some 800 years as an important pilgrimage site in the Byzantine Empire it vanished — buried under 18 feet of mud from the rampaging Myros River. All that remained was the Church of St. Nicholas, parts of a Roman amphitheater and tombs cut into the rocky hills.

But now, 700 years later, Myra is reappearing.

Archaeologists first detected the ancient city in 2009 using ground-penetrating radar that revealed anomalies whose shape and size suggested walls and buildings. Over the next two years they excavated a small, stunning 13th-century chapel sealed in an uncanny state of preservation. Carved out of one wall is a cross that, when sunlit, beams its shape onto the altar. Inside is a vibrant fresco that is highly unusual for Turkey.

Read it all. Fascinating. What a discovery!