27 Items
The Cardo Maximus (Jerusalem's main thoroughfare)
The Cardo Maximus was the main thoroughfare of the Emperor Hadiran’s 2nd Century CE Aelia Capitolina. It was a wide, stone-paved and colonnaded road that led through the heart of the city from the north at the Damascus Gate to the south with an unknown end point.
The southern end of the road was excavated in the 1970s during the reconstruction of the city’s Jewish Quarter. Excavators uncovered a section of the road, now located below ground level and accessible for visitors to walk upon today. This section of road was dated to the Emperor Justinian’s rebuilding programme of the 6th Century CE to link the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the newly constructed Nea Church. It should therefore be viewed as a later addition to the original Roman road as no evidence of an earlier pavement was excavated below.
Type: Archaeological Site
Tags: Aelia Capitolina, Byzantine, Byzantine Road, C2nd, C6th, Cardo, Column, Excavation, Hadrian, Jerusalem, Justinian, Roman, Roman road, Stone
St. Shio, Eniseli
The small basilica standing to the north of the village of Eniseli near Gremi in Kakheti is a very simple church on the standard pattern of Kakhetian three-church basilicas. This simplicity means that the only decoration to be found is over the eastern of the two clerestory windows on the south side of the building. An examination of the construction shows that the south aisle was built later than the central nave and the north aisle, which were both constructed at the same time. The current south aisle has been ruined and partially restored meaning that it is unclear whether or not the outer door on the south side is original or a later interpolation. The narthex has also been largely destroyed but most of the north aisle is still extant, and at the east end this aisle acts as a pastophorion that is only accessible through the central nave. Although the church stands in a well-used village cemetery, it is now not employed for active worship and is home to a significant colony of bats. The church is undated but is believed to have been constructed anywhere between the fifth and seventh centuries.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Basilica, C5th, C6th, C7th, Church, Eniseli, Georgia, Gremi, Kakheti, Three Church Basilica
Tsiranavor, Avan, Yerevan
Katoghike Tsiranavor Church of Avan (Cathedral Church of the Holy Mother of God, Avan) is the oldest church known that falls within the municipal boundaries of contemporary Yerevan. It is located in the Avan district in the east of the city, north of the road leading to Geghard and Garni. The building is a centrally-planned with a quatre-lobed interior, but is square on the outside. It dates to the end of the sixth century and, as with Zvartnots and Yereruyk, it stands on a stepped platform - although in this case there are only 2 steps. The church was later renamed Surb Hovhannes (St. John) and today is a ruin missing the upper portion of the building with only one of the 4 smaller linking conches that joined the 4 main lobes of the building still extant. The site is concealed down a narrow alleyway and stands on a small patch of waste ground surrounded by domestic buildings and a small auto repair business making it exceedingly difficult to find.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Armenia, Avan, C6th, Cathedral, Centrally-Planned, Church, Tsiranavor, Yerevan
Odzun
The church at Odzun in the northern Lori Province of Armenia has been variously dated as between the fifth and seventh centuries, with many sources electing to place it in the sixth century, and was subject to alterations in the eighth century. It has been undergoing a process of renovation since 2012 and these renovations were still ongoing during the site visit in August 2017. The reason for visiting Odzun is that it is a domed basilica of a type that belongs to a small group of monuments recorded in Georgia, Armenia and territories formerly belonging to both nations that now lie in Turkey. Therefore this architectural type is comparable with the church of Tsromi (Georgia), Mren and Bagawan (Turkey) and St. Gayane in Echmiadzin (Armenia). As an aside it also possesses a unique early medieval funerary monument to the north of the church where two stelae are framed by a two-arched arcade in a manner that is reminiscent of some Roman funerary monuments in northwest Syria.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Armenia, Basilica, C5th, C6th, C7th, C8th, Church, Domed Basilica, Funerary Stele, Odzun, Stela, Three Church Basilica
Zedazeni
Zedazeni is the monastery associated with St. Ioane Zedazneli, who is referred to in Georgian hagiographical sources as the leader of the Thirteen (As)Syrian Fathers. He is believed to have retreated to the mountains of Kvemo Kartli north of Mtskheta with a band of local followers such as Elia Diakoni (Elia the Deacon) and founded a monastery there. A tomb in the north aisle of the small church is believed by the faithful to be his shrine. Although art historians and archaeologists have argued that some elements of the church at the site date back to the sixth century, the evidence for this has yet to be published and it is difficult to make out the chronology of the building which has been heavily restored over the centuries. As with many ancient Christian sites in Georgia, in particular those associated with saintly figures, the foundation has been re-established since the fall of communism and is now home to an ultra-orthodox religious community who are on the fringes of the Georgian Orthodox church. This extremist tendency is illustrated by the fashioning of a giant cross from a disused electricity pylon and the construction of a giant wall of icon reproductions several hundred metres from the monastery compound.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, C6th, Church, Elia Diakoni, Georgia, Kvemo Kartli, Monastery, St. Ioane Zedazneli, Thirteen (As)Syrian Fathers, Zedazeni
Zerzevan Church
A small partially excavated church in the middle of the hilltop that Zerzevan's fortified enclosure occupies.
Type: Architecture
Tags: C6th, Church, Late Antique, Turkey
Tsikusdziri/Petra Church
A relatively small church, it's small size was probably dictated by the amount of room available on the citadel.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Byzantine, C6th, Church, Georgia, Georgian, Late Antique
Zerzevan
A substantial fortified settlement atop a plateau above the main road from Mardin to Diyarbakir. In recent years archaeological excavation has been undertaken at the site.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Anastasius, C6th, Cistern, Defensive Network, Fortifications, Justinian, Late Antique, Turkey
Kafar Hawwar
At the time of the visit there were no roads within about 30 minutes walk of this village. The church is largely rubble with only the sides of the apse arch still standing, with the destruction almost certainly caused my earthquakes. The bema was still visible and the site was undisturbed. Tchalenko could not securely date the site through survey and noted both C4th and C6th elements in the church.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Bema, C4th, C6th, Church, Jebel Halaqa, Kafar Hawwar, Limestone Massif, Syria
Sinkhar
Sinkhar is located in a valley between Batuta and Sheikh Sulaiman and, at the time of the site visit, was only accessible by walking for some distance. The C4th church in the village was severely overgrown, meaning that only a well-preserved chapel to the south of the main church, that was added in the C6th, could be accessed and it was impossible to find any trace of the bema and other features recorded by Tchalenko in the 1950s.
Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Bema, C4th, C6th, Church, Jebel Seman, Limestone Massif, Sinkhar, Syria