Çanlı Kilise
Type:
Churches,
Settlements,
Secular architecture
Date:
Eleventh century (church), and tenth through fourteenth centuries (settlement)
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Turkey
Description:
The church of Çanlı Kilise (Bell Church) is surrounded by a kilometer-long settlement cut from Cappadocia's soft volcanic rock. We no longer know the name of this former settlement, so it is generally known by the same name as the masonry
church. Most of the rock-cut structures are oriented to maximize sunlight into the caves, and many have dovecoats, courtyards, and private chapels. The Çanlı Kilise is a masonry structure not whose original wall painting is now barely visible, but the interior must once have been vibrantly colorful.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
6
Image Credits:
Robert Ousterhout, Wikimedia Commons