Description: Standing on a bluff overlooking the Dnieper River is the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, or Monastery of the Caves, founded in 1015. This massive complex of churches and cloisters--a miniature city of gilt onion domes and spires--is built atop an underground labyrinth of catacombs, chapels, and monastic cells from which it takes its name.

Keywords: Monastery of the Caves Kiev Ukraine eastern Europe former Soviet Union USSR Kiev Pechersk Lavra Kiev Pecherska Lavra Kyiv Kyyiv Knib Ukrayina religion Christianity eastern Orthodoxy pictures stock photos stock photography fine art photography.