Name: Pope Leo in Turkiye: Pontiff to visit ancient basilica on day two
Uploaded: 2025-11-28T10:17:40.254Z
Duration: 2 min 32 s
Description: On the second day of his visit, Pope Leo will visit the ruins of an ancient basilica in the town of Iznik.

On the second day of his visit, Pope Leo will visit the ruins of an ancient basilica in the town of Iznik.

İznik

Pope Leo will visit the ancient basilica in Iznik, Türkiye, which was recently uncovered as Lake Iznik's water levels receded due to climate change and industrial activity. The basilica, believed to be the site of the first church council in the 4th century, is now drawing attention as a key location in Christian history.

Local authorities and archaeologists, including Professor Mustafa Sahin, have emphasized the significance of the discovery, which has also led to increased faith tourism in the predominantly Muslim region. Pope Leo's visit is expected to further establish Iznik as an important destination for Christian pilgrims.

Pope Leo in Turkiye: Pontiff to visit ancient basilica on day two

On the shores of Lake Iznik in western Turkey lies a relic of early Christendom. The newly discovered remains of the 4th century basilica that might have looked like this when the first ever church council met here, uniting in the belief that Christ was the Son of God, the birthplace then of modern Christianity. A fresco inside the Vatican depicts that meeting, held at Nicaea in present-day Iznik, when Christians, embattled by Roman persecution, had been allowed to gather. Professor Mustafa Sahin describes the moment he realised what it was. It was an enormous surprise for me, an unbelievable feeling. I told my colleagues, we must introduce this to the world immediately. That was a decade ago, when the basilica's shape and surrounding burial ground were first spotted from the air. The initial excavations, led by Professor Sahin, were carried out underwater. I believe a miracle has happened here. After 1700 years, the church is revealing itself again. It's something very important. A church built for the first council is meeting humanity again, in its 1700th year. Like many of the world's great lakes, Iznik is rapidly diminishing, consumed by a warming climate, lakeside irrigation and giant, unregulated industry. The waterline in some parts has retreated 100 metres in just six months. In a sense then, nature's loss in these receding waters is antiquity's gain. What commerce, agriculture and climate change have taken from the lake has been exchanged for this lost episode of religious history. And while the farmers and fishers of this mainly Muslim community will also lose out to a shrinking lake, they may gain from an increase of faith tourism. We host two to three groups each week, that's 45 people on average. Last week a group of 85 people came, before that we had 40 guests from the Ivory Coast. Attempts to unite the church, bridging the Catholic and Orthodox divide, Pope Leo will join their number here, putting Iznik and its lakeside holy place firmly on the Christian pilgrimage map. Jonah Hull, Al Jazeera, Iznik, Turkey.

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