Yilanli (Snake) Church (of St. Onuphorius)

The main section is transversally rectangular and barrel vaulted, whereas the extended space to the south, which houses the graves, has a flat ceiling. The apse was hollowed out of the long wall on the left and the church was left uncompleted. The entrance to the church is from the north. Portraits of the respected saints of Cappadocia are on either side of the vault. The church dates to the 11th century.

In the first century, there were a group of people in the Egyptian desert who were called hermits. These people lived a life of seclusion, just for God. A monk, St. Onuphrius from Thebaide started to live a religious life in a monastery in Hermopolis near Thebes in Egypt. His festival is celebrated on the 12th of June every year. He believed in the superiority of a lonely life away from communities, and for this reason he later moved down south to the mountains and deserts. Onuphrius lived in the desert for sixty years eating dates and plants and he died towards the 4th century.

According to the story he was fed by an angel with holy Eucharist bread every Sunday. The last hermit, St. Paphnutius, went to the Egyptian desert to lean about the life style of the hermits and to meet St. Onuphrius, from whom he leamed wisdom and control of his soul. When Onuphrius was about to die, he told Paphnutius that he had been sent by God to the desert, and that he was to tell everything he had leaned and seen to the world. "An Angel will protect you from evil, and you will be clean on the last judgement day," While he was speaking, sound of angels and music came from the sky. Paphnutius wept as these sounds faded slowly.

Scenes: Oprasite the entrance is aportrait of Jesus holding the Bible in his left hand. The donor of the church is pictured beside Jesus. On the east side of the vault are St.Onesimus, St. George and the Dragon, St. Theodare, and Helena holding the True Cross with her son Constantine the Great. On the west of the vault is the long haired, naked St. Onuphoilis behind a palm tree, with St. Thomas in a sanctifying pasition beside him, and St. Basil holding a book.