Rock Churches
Buildings cut down into the ground instead of up from it. Lalibela's monolithic churches, Petra, the Cappadocian settlements of Göreme and Derinkuyu, the cliff monasteries of the Judean desert, and the ceilings that were once solid stone.
Part of Underground
20 moments in this segment.
- - Interior of Bet Debre Sina (Bet Mikael) Rock-Hewn Church - Lalibela - Ethiopia - 01
- - Detail of Door of Bet Debre Sina (Bet Mikael) Rock-Hewn Church - Lalibela - Ethiopia - 01
- - Detail of Facade of Bet Giyorgis Rock-Hewn Church - Lalibela - Ethiopia - 01
- - Christian Symbols in Bet Debre Sina Rock-Hewn Church - Lalibela - Ethiopia
- - Interior of Bet Giyorgis Rock-Hewn Church - Lalibela - Ethiopia
- - Monks in an ancient Judean Desert monastery. AP footage from the cliff monastery on the Mount of Temptation, cut into rock above Jericho.
- - The centuries-old cave churches of Turkey. The rock-cut Christian churches of the Goreme valley in Cappadocia, painted directly onto the tuff.
- - Inside Lalibela. 60 Minutes reports from the eleven churches the Ethiopian Orthodox Church holds were built by angels.
- - St Anthony, the first Desert Father. The Egyptian hermit whose withdrawal into cave and desert shaped Christian monasticism.
- - Petra: lost city of stone. NOVA on how Nabataean engineers cut tombs into cliff faces and channelled water to a desert city.
- - Asceticism from the Desert Fathers onward. Dr Erika Sigurdson on the long history of deliberate withdrawal and self-denial in Western thought.
- - Petra's hidden origins. Albert Lin traces the Nabataeans who carved the rock-cut facades of Petra.
- - Descending through Rome at San Clemente. Beneath a medieval church lie a 4th-century basilica and a Mithraeum, stacked in one shaft of time.
- - The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela. The Met on the Ethiopian churches carved downward into volcanic rock rather than built up from it.
- - Fig. 6.2. Ritual enclosure of Lalibela adjucent to one of the Lalibela rock hewn churches
- - Yamadera, Part II - Yamadera7486. Rock-cut memorial tablets and grave markers carved into the cliff face at Yamadera (Risshaku-ji) temple complex. Modern photograph of an ancient site.
- - Uplistsikhe - Uplistsikhe8141. Cave dwellings and rock-cut chambers of the ancient troglodyte city of Uplistsikhe, with a medieval Christian basilica visible on the upper right. Modern photograph of an ancient site.
- - Uplistsikhe - Uplistsikhe8144. A basilica-style brick church at the Uplistsikhe cave town complex, situated on a rocky promontory above a river valley. Modern photograph of an ancient site.
- - The hermit caves of Mount Athos. The cliffside caves where Orthodox monks have lived in complete solitude for centuries.
- - The archaeological discovery of Petra. Tristan Hughes on the rock-cut city, its tombs and how European travellers reached it.