St. Nicholas Church, Demre

The Demre Museum Directorate has closed off the mosaic floor at St. Nicholas Church in tourism hotspot Antalya's Demre district, a site believed to be where St. Nicholas, widely recognized as Santa Claus, once walked.

An excavation team has unearthed the exact place of the tomb of Saint Nicholas, also known as "Santa Claus," and the floor on which he walked, inside the St. Nicholas Church in the southern province of Antalya's Demre district.

He rides a reindeer-drawn sleigh, makes toys in the North Pole with the help of elves and brings gifts to children through chimneys. Father Christmas is an indispensable part of Christmas every year across the world. But little is known that he was a native of what is today Antalya, a tourist hotspot on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.