The Best Travel Destinations in My City - Steemit Engagement Season 4 | Sümela Monestry

Hello dear Steemit Travel community.
I was very interested in this week's Steemit Engagement Challenge and I wanted to participate in this exiting competition. Before moving on to my article, I would like to invite dear @ozenozge, @enveng and @mustafatunc to this enjoyable competition. The tourist attraction I will introduce to you today is Sümela Monastery, which is one of the most famous tourist attractions not only in Trabzon, where I live, but also in Turkey. Without further ado, let's take a look at the Sumela Monastery and my visit there.

_{Image Source}

Sumela Monastery

Sümela Monastery is a monastery and church complex located within the borders of Trabzon Maçka and located at an altitude of 1150 meters. It is estimated that this monastery was built in the 4th century AD. Sümela Monastery, one of the most important structures in Anatolian lands, was built around the steep slopes of Karadağ, as can be seen from the image given above. Considering the technology of that time, it is admirable that this structure, which was built about 1700 years ago, was built in such a difficult place.

_{[Me inside de Monastery}

Let's start with what this monastery is and why it is so famous.

According to legend, the Virgin Mary entered the dreams of the Athenian priests Barnabas and Sophonirious and told them to find their icons on Mount Mela. After traveling this difficult path, the monks found the icon of Mary here and built the monastery here. This place has maintained its importance throughout history. Founded in 1204, it became one of the most important places of the Trabzon Empire. It has been restored many times throughout history and has taken its present form.

There are many frescoes inside the monastery. These frescoes were quite impressive.

_{Frescoes inside the Sümela Monestry}

These frescoes depict important figures of the Christian religion such as Jesus Christ and Mary. You can read the stories of the frescoes here in detail by clicking on the link.

_{Frescoes inside the Sümela Monestry}

My journey to Sumela took a long time. When I wanted to come for the first time last year, there were curfews due to Covid and we couldn't come. When my cousin @ozenozge came here this spring, we wanted to visit here with her, but this time the monastery was closed to visitors because it was under renovation. I finally had the opportunity to visit here in the past weeks. This time we had my cousin, aunt and brother in our team.

_{Our Sümela Crew}

Although it is open to visitors, the renovations are not completely finished. For this reason, we did not have the opportunity to visit every corner of Sumela Monastery. Since the altitude of the monastery is quite high, it is usually cool here. It was very foggy on the day we visited, so we couldn't see the view on the cover. When we talked to the locals, they told us that it is very unlikely to come across a fog-free day. It is possible to encounter a foggy landscape almost most days of the year.

_{My foggy scenery}

Transportation to Sumela Monastery🚎🚘

_{Sümela Monastery in google maps}

It is possible to get here in many different ways. There are public buses departing from Trabzon city center to Sumela Monastery. We came with our private car. Since our house is in Trabzon, Yomra, we had about 1 hour drive. But there is a point where private cars are also allowed. After that, you can reach the monastery with the ring vehicles provided by the municipality. Here we were able to reach the monastery by changing two ring vehicles.

Sumela Monastery Entrance Fees💲💳

Local tourists need a Museum Card to enter the Sumela Monastery. If you have an existing museum card, you can visit this place without paying an extra fee. If you do not have a museum card, you can get a 1-year museum card from the box office at the entrance. With this museum card you can visit museums and historical buildings all over the country for free for the rest of the year. Since we didn't have a museum card, we got one here. The entrance fee for one person was 60 Turkish Liras. So it was approximately 14.9 Steem.

We entered with a museum card, but I should mention that the entrance fee for foreign tourists is 100 Turkish Lire, that is 25 Steem.

It was impossible not to love this interesting place. I hope I will have the opportunity to visit it again on a non-foggy day in the future.

Thank you for reading.