This 5th-century basilica is the only church from Thessaloniki's early Christian days to have survived pretty much intact, without the restorations and renovations that have changed the characters of Ayia Sofia and Ayios Dimitrios. The church's name comes from an early Christian icon of the Virgin which the faithful believed was made by divine, not human, hands. At some point, the icon was lost, but the church's name still commemorates it. Due to the inexorable rise in street level over the centuries, the church now sits well below the level of today's roads. The marble columns, with their elaborate "perforated" acanthus-leaf decorations, give you a good idea of the Byzantine love of the elaborate -- achieved here by vigorous drill work. There are mosaics of floral and vine motifs interspersed with birds and 13th-century frescoes showing some of the 40 martyrs. The missing martyrs were probably obliterated when the church was converted to a mosque in the 15th century after Salonika fell to the Turks