Binbirkilise

37.43722222222233.144166666667Koordinaten: 37 ° 26 ' 14 " N, 33 ° 8' 39" E

As Binbirkilise ( German churches in 1001 ) an area in the ancient region of Lycaonia is referred to the volcano Karadağ in today's Turkish province of Karaman. In the complex there are about 50 Byzantine church ruins. The area lies on the northern slope of the Karadağ massif about 30 km north of the provincial capital of Karaman. The ruins are included and in the places Madenşehri, Üçkuyu and Degle.

Buildings

The area was in the third to the eighth century, a cultural center of the Byzantine Christians. There are remains of churches, monasteries, fortifications, cisterns and houses that are partly integrated in today's villages or the stones have been used as building material. Result, the stock of buildings has decreased continuously. Architecture History are interesting the multiple Kuppelbasiliken represented by the Syrian type. The walls were built of large blocks. Because of the shortage of wood stone domes were used here instead of the usual flat wooden roof. About the aisles are built behind the upper colonnade galleries. In the apses there are double arcade windows, entrance areas usually have double arcades and are supported by a single pillar in the middle. In some of the churches, especially in Madenşehri, remains of wall paintings can be seen. Also from Hittite, Hellenistic and Roman periods are scattered relics present in the environment.

History of Research

In 1904, Carl Holzmann published his sketches for Archaeological Binbirkilise. Shortly afterwards it was again written by the British traveler and archaeologist Gertrude Bell, who explored the region in 1905 in the course of their journey through Asia Minor. She published her travel reports, including numerous photos in a series of articles in the Revue Archéologique. On the same trip, she met in Konya archaeologist William Ramsay know and the two decided to carry out excavations in Binbirkilise. 1907 took place the excavation work, the results were again published with many pictures, both in the book The Thousand and One Churches. Even as Bell returned two years later, she found that a large part of the documented building was gone by stone robbery. Bells Images show that in the meantime the destruction of the buildings is more advanced. The Turkish art historian Semavi Eyice examined the area and in 1971 published his research results.