Kapadokya Bölgesi, Ihlara Vadisi'ndeki Bizans Dönemi Kayaya Oyma Yapı Toplulukları * Hülya Şahna (original) (raw)

The Peristremma Valley, which is located in the Güzelyurt district of Aksaray, is a deep canyon in the northwest-southeast direction and has four main settlements: Selime, Yaprakhisar, Belisırma and Ihlara. In many studies, the valley has been considered to be a monastic settlement, but in recent researches conducted in Selime and Yaprakhisar, some complexes which can be defined as the dwellings used by the locals were identified. Such dwellings have been asserted to be the houses and the agricultural storage areas which were used by temporary and permanent settlers. Nevertheless, Ihlara and Belisırma settlements, which form the southern part of the Valley, have been continued to be defined as the monastic center of the Valley. Even though Ihlara and Belisırma were the settlements where religious life was intensified, in our researches on these settlements, along with complexes which can be associated with a church, we encountered some complexes which do not contain a church but which have a high quality and flamboyant labor in terms of the architectural design of their façade and grand halls, and some dwellings which can be regarded as houses with ordinary architectural layout similar to the ones in Selime and Yaprakhisar. The aim of the present study is to make the first architectural descriptions of the newly detected complexes, to determine their significance within the Byzantine and Cappadocian rock-cut architecture by examining their general architectural characteristics and to prove that there were traces of secular life in this part of the Valley as well.