The people of Christian Ethiopia produced impressive rock-cut monolithic churches such as that of St George at Lalibela during the 13th century and the first Portuguese forts appeared soon after this, penetrating as far south as Zambia.

As late as the 10th century, a simple wooden chancel barrier separated the apse from the nave in the rock-cut churches, though by the late 11th century, the templon had become standard.

A cluster of rock-cut Byzantine churches, chapels and monasteries 1km uphill from the centre of the village, it deserves at least a two-hour visit.

Although other rock-cut churches in Cappadocia also based their narratives on the Gospel of James, none are exactly like the Old Church at Tokali Kilise.

Unlike majority of the rock-cut churches the patronage of the New Church is surprisingly known.

An inscription from a rock-cut church near Ivanovo laconically mentions the death of "emperor Gergi" in the year 1308/1309.

In the cliffs opposite the town on the south is the rock-cut church of the Madonna del Parto, developed out of one of the numerous Etruscan tombs of the area (according to some scholars, it was a mithraeum).

An inscription records that it was the work of the architect Galdzak, who also constructed the other rock-cut church and the jhamatuns within a period of some forty years.

The rock-cut tomb gives access to the second rock-cut church.

It is held by the Bet Medhane Alem, the House of the Redeemer of the World, a 12th-century rock-cut church in Lalibela.