When it was discovered a decade ago, the 4th-century basilica of Nicaea was totally submerged, its importance to early Christian history hidden beneath a lake in northwestern Turkey.

Now, the church in Iznik, a small town several hours from Istanbul, stands on dry land, its ruins exposed as the waters that engulfed it for more than 700 years have receded due to climate change.

Known as the Basilica of the Holy Fathers, it marks the site of one of the early Church's most important gatherings which took place in Nicaea 12 years after the Roman Empire legalised Christianity, ending years of persecution, torture and death.

In AD 325, Constantine the Great convened the First Council of Nicaea, a gathering of 318 bishops who, after two months of intense debate, drafted the Nicaean Creed, a st

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