the origin of a word

There is a cave in a hill in Antakya. In fact, there are many caves in hills in Antakya, but what makes this cave unique, is that it houses one of the oldest churches in the world. The Church of St. Peter is the very first place in history where Christians were called Christians— which is incredible, when you think about it. I never actually thought about the origins of the term 'Christian.' To actually stand in a physical place where a word was born, where a belief was solidified by a name, felt humbling. Big things generally do start off small.



The facade of the church was built by Crusaders around 1100 CE, but it is long believed that St. Peter the apostle himself,  dug the church out of the rock. There are scars of frescoes— nothing discernible, and puzzle pieces of mosaic designs, faded and crumbled. The entire church is only 13 metres deep by 9.5 metres wide— with a central altar placed there in 1932.



Turkey really is just built upon layers and layers of history.