Some Recent Finds at Alahan (Koja Kalessi)

Abstract

Of the many Byzantine churches in Cilicia which have survived, in a greater or lesser state of ruin, to the present day, there can be no doubt that the best known and most remarkable is the monastery church at Alahan in Isauria. During July, 1890, Professor W. M. Ramsay, D. G. Hogarth and A. C. Headlam visited the site, and in 1892 published their results under the title “Ecclesiastical Sites in Isauria (Cilicia Trachea)” in Supplementary Papers No. II of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. This publication completely superseded that of Laborde who had been at Alahan in 1826, and to-day it is still the only authoritative work on the subject of the architecture and relief sculpture of the monastery.Headlam's description of the site is brief and accurate. “The ruins of Koja Kalessi (i.e. Alahan) are situated about 3,000 feet above the Calycadnus valley and 4,000 feet above the sea, facing south and southwest and looking over the junction of the two great river valleys through which the branches of the ancient Calycadnus run. They consist of a large monastery with buildings of various characters too much destroyed to be easily identified, and a church in very good preservation. They are built on a terrace running due east and west, partly cut out of the side of the hill, with the ground falling away very steeply below and rising almost precipitously above.” (Pl. IX, b).