More cave frescoes

This cave church was in the Ihlara valley. Our guide claimed that at least some of the damage to the frescoes, especially their faces, was due to the practice of setting semi-precious stones as eyes - which later were picked off and sold.

Many of the frescoes depict biblical and saintly scenes. St George is a common motif, and I think he was one of the originally Cappadocian saints actually. Very many of the early church saints were Anatolian (as much of early church history was) and the Roman persecutions of Christians, i e under Domitian in the 3rd century, hit very hard in this area.