Rupestral monasteries and scythes of Basarabia are the oldest monuments of religious architecture preserved on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. Having been vaguely mentioned in the Xth century by the Byzantine Emperor, Constantin Porfirogenet, who used to write about crosses and other lapidary signs, encountered within rocks on the right abrupt bank of Dniester, first rupestral Christian dwellings appear on the territory of the Republic of Moldova before the Hesychast Byzantine period (XIVth century), but become along the XIV-XVth centuries some centers of pilgrimage and isolation for Hesychast monks. According to the opinion of the researcher Eugen Bazgu: "Rupestral complexes from Dniester and Raut basins, situated from each other at a distance of approximately 15-25 km, constituted a system of "halting places" for pilgrims within a communication network with an exit to the Black Sea.
Having been constructed within different periods, desolated and again refounded, Basarabian rupestral scythes and monasteries frequently are a proof of superposition of various chronological phases of human habitats. Some of them do still preserve anterior vestiges of Christianity (ceramics or Gaeto-Dacian inhumations, etc.)
The most renowned rupestral monasteries and scythes in Basarabia are the in Horodiste (seven phases of development), Butuceni (four phases of development, the first one dating before the XIIth century and the last one belonging to the XVIII-XIXth centuries), Socol (three phases of development), Tapova, Japca and Saharna. Rupestral scythes are situated within Holercani-Marcauti and Malovata localities. Lapidary signs, including various types of crosses, may be discovered within caves in Butuceni, Naslavcea, Nicoreni, Horodiste, Bacota, etc. The Socol scythe, situated within a rupestral church, presents an equestrian image of a hunter slaughtering a deer, executed in alto-relief technique. Not less interesting is said to be the relief with the images of a man, cock and a deer, located in the neighborhood of the village of Busa, on the left bank of Dniester (today this territory belongs to Ukraine).
Although the exact dating of these images is ambiguous, either their value or the age of human habitats attested inside rupestral scythes are beyond any doubt.
