" Yilanlı Church. St George and St Theodorus"
© Mark Buckley-Sharp Sep-99
The Göreme open air museum in Cappadocia is a UNESCO site comprising many rock cut churches with frescos from the 11^th-13^th century. One church is called the Yılanlı (‘with snake’) as it has the best preserved example we have seen of St George (nearly always on a white horse) and his companion St Theodorus (always on a brown horse). St George is seen killing a snake (NOT a dragon) which represents evil and hell.
The church is very narrow, and I bought a 18-35mm zoom specially to take this picture. To comply with conservation requirements, no tripod or flash were used.