Historic Church discovered during excavation shows Jesus rising to the sky

A underground church estimated to be built in the 5th century, was uncovered by Turkish archaeologist during excavation and cleaning work in an underground city discovered as part of Nevsehir Castle Urban Transformation Project. 

The world's largest known underground city was found December 2014; it consists of about 3.5 miles of tunnels, churches, and escape galleries dating back around 5,000 years.

The rock-carved underground church discovered, is located within a castle in the centre of Nevsehir that spread over  area of 360,000 square meter, within a third degree archaeologist site that includes 11 neighborhoods in the city centre.

"This place is even bigger than the other historical churches in Cappadocia. It was built underground and has original frescoes that have survived to this day," said the mayor of Nevsehir; Hasan Unver.

There are exciting depictions like fish falling from the hand of Jesus Christ, him rising up into the sky, and bad souls being killed.

"When the church is completely revealed Cappadocia could become an even bigger pilgrimage centre of Orthodoxy" said the mayor.

According to archaeologist Ali Aydin "We have stopped work in order to protect the wall paintings and the church. When the weather gets warmer in the spring, we will wait for humidity to evaporate and then we will start removing the earth."

He went further to say that they hope to discover even more original paintings as the earth is removed.

Five other churches have previously been discovered in the same underground city. It is believed that early christians used the city to hide during the persecution of christians after the crucixifixion of Jesus Christ.