If its ancient walls could talk, Sümela Monastery in eastern Turkey would have quite a few stories to tell. Since its founding in the 4th century CE by some of the earliest Christians to arrive along the Black Sea coast, the shrine has witnessed the evolution of the Roman Empire into the Byzantine era, the rise of the Ottomans, the struggle for Turkish independence after World War I, decades of vandalism and neglect, and an almost miraculous resurrection in modern times.

Even more alluring than Sümela’s tumultuous history is a location that seems generated by artificial intelligence or computer graphics rather than a real place — a complex of chapels, courtyards, library, living quarters, bell tower, aqueduct and a stone-enclosed sacred spring precariously perched on a rocky ledge nearly 1,000 feet (300 meters) above a wooded river valley in the Pontic Alps. Every day, thousands of visitors — some of them religious pilgrims but most drawn by the splendor of the early Christian frescoes and architecture that seems to defy gravity — make their way along a cobblestone path to the monastery. Another draw is the fact that Sümela is on UNESCO’s Tentative List for designation as a World Heritage site.