| Department |
Archive |
| Collection |
Byzantine Research Fund |
| Reference No. |
BRF/01/02/02/008 |
| Level |
Item |
| Place |
Alahan Monastery
|
| Dates |
1890-1892 |
| Donor/Creator |
Headlam, Reverend Arthur Cayley
|
| Scope and Content |
South doorway on the west wall (east church).
These two photos are printer proofs. |
| Further information |
Alahan Manastiri (Alahan monastery) is the mid-twentieth-century name for the late-Antique ecclesiastical complex that dominates Göksu valley in ancient Isauria. It consists of two basilicas (east and west), a baptistery, a cave church and a little cemetery. It seems that it functioned as a pilgrimage site during the first centuries of Christianity. The cave (probably a pagan shrine?) was inhabited first by a small community of monks. A free-standing basilica was soon erected nearby while another one was built to the east. The two basilicas were connected by a colonnaded walk while a spring above the midway provided water for the baptistery. Noteworthy is the high quality of the complexs stone-masonry: Isaurian craftsmen were renown for their skills in stonework. The monastery was abandoned by its Monophysite monks shortly after 518 when Justin I began his fight again Monophysitism. It was re-inhabited very likely by a new community of settlers shortly after who, however, soon abandoned the site. |
| Reference |
Ecclesiastical sites in Isauria (Cilicia Trachea). 2: 13, fig.4.
|
