 The best @-@ known feature of the Church of Christ Pantocrator is the rich and colourful decoration of its exterior walls . The most lavishly decorated part of the church is the east side with the apse , and as a whole all sides of the church exhibit different ornamentation . Interchanging strips of three or four rows of bricks and carved stones , which create an optical pattern , are the most basic type of decoration used . Rows of blind arches , four @-@ leaved floral motifs , triangular ornaments , circular turquoise ceramics and brick swastika friezes run along the east wall . Ousterhout likens the appearance of the church 's superimposed arcades to an aqueduct ; an earlier example of that configuration can be observed in the Cappadocian church of Çanlı Kilise near Aksaray , Turkey . The inclusion of swastikas in the decoration is considered unusual and curious to tourists . It is explained by the medieval use of the swastika as a symbol of the Sun . 
