The Byzantine churches of Cilicia have attracted considerable attention during the last 80 years. Often scholars have focused on the urban centres of Cilicia Pedias, the coastal settlements of Cilicia Trachea, and the monasteries near the important roads. However, the Taurus mountains, those lofty barriers which surround the fertile plain, have been ignored by most modern investigators. In the late antique world Greek communities found protection and sustenance in the isolated Highlands. While not as wealthy or numerous as their more urbane cousins to the south, these Cilician Greeks also have left behind monuments of their worship.In the summer of 1979 I was fortunate to locate and survey in the Highlands two Byzantine churches which hitherto had not been published. The study of these buildings was part of a more general field survey of classical and medieval sites. Since no excavations were undertaken all descriptions and surveys are based on surface remains. The purpose of this paper is to describe the location, masonry and plan of each church and to offer rudimentary conclusions based on a comparison with the known Cilician churches.
Glacial geomorphology of the Aladağlar, central Taurus Mountains, Turkey
