Sumela Monastery

Sumela Monastery clings to a sheer cliff face some 300 metres above the forested Altindere valley in the Pontic mountains south of Trabzon - a Greek Orthodox foundation dedicated to the Virgin Mary that tradition dates to the fourth century, when two Athenian monks followed an icon to this improbable ledge. What grew over the centuries is a vertical village pressed into the rock at about 1,200 metres altitude: the frescoed Rock Church at its heart, chapels, kitchens, a library and tiers of monks' cells behind a facade that seems painted onto the mountain, fed by an aqueduct arched along the cliff. The monks departed in the early twentieth century, and the complex now receives visitors as a museum within Altindere Valley National Park, its restored frescoes glowing again - Black Sea mist drifting through the spruce forest below completes one of Turkey's most startling sights.

What you actually see

• The cliff facade - the monastery pressed flat against the rock wall.
• The Rock Church frescoes - biblical scenes across cave ceiling and outer walls.
• The aqueduct - the arched water channel tracing the cliff.
• The valley view - spruce forest and drifting mist far below the balconies.

When to go

June to September is most reliable; Black Sea weather is famously moody and mist can swallow the cliff in any month - sometimes atmospherically, sometimes completely. Mornings beat the tour-bus waves.

Honest expectations

Access is a shuttle from the valley car park and then a steep uphill path - allow 20 to 30 sweaty minutes. Some frescoes carry centuries of scratched graffiti, part of the story now. Restoration work can close sections without much notice.

Nearby

Trabzon's own Hagia Sophia, the Zigana mountain passes and the highland lake at Uzungol.