Welcome to Akdamar Island and the Chucch of the Holy Cross. There are the ruins of a monestary here that was built duing 915-922 AD, but this church was built later in 1296-1333. The bell tower was addedd in 1763. There is a story about an Armenian prince who had fled here, but the sotry which sticks in the memory is of a beautiful woman in the charge of the monks named Tamara and her lover who drowned trying to visit her. The words "Oh Tamara" became the name of the island "Akdamar".
The church is decorated with stories from the scriptures, stories of the lives of the locals at the times and with animals. The close up shown in the second photo depicts David and Goliath.
The third picture is of a stone (headstone) which shows the amount of detail in some of the stonework.
Inside the church... there are lots of bluish fading pictures of disciples and...
And the final picture is one taken on leaving the island. The boy kept trying to take photos of himself with the Turkish flag using his cellphone. A little humourous as everywhere on hillsides you can see the symbol from the Turkish flag with words I have been told mean "Proud to be Turkish".
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