Alahan Monastery

Alahan Monastery sits on an east-west terrace on a steep hill some twenty kilometres north of Mut, in Mersin province, about 1,000 metres above the Göksu Valley and 1,300 metres above sea level. You reach it by a climb of about two kilometres. The Ottoman travel writer Evliya Çelebi wrote that it looked as if its maker had just finished it.

The complex is usually credited to the Isaurian emperor Zeno, who ruled from AD 474 to 491, although the monastery is estimated to date to about 440 to 442. In the 5th and 6th centuries Christians travelled in large numbers on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and Anatolia was an important stopover. Alahan became one of the pilgrim centres serving them, and Christian buildings from the 5th and 6th centuries have survived here.

The complex holds the Western Church, the monastery, the Eastern Church, monks' chambers carved into the rock and tombs nearby, plus a baptistery, a colonnaded walkway, baths, water sources and living quarters. Its two large churches, richly decorated, are among the highlights of early Christian and Byzantine art, and the architecture recalls the Hagia Sophia. A masterful stone-carving tradition is visible in the doorways and capitals.