The Thousand and One Churches (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

William Mitchell Ramsay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0265739640 ISBN 13: 9780265739648

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

Exploring an extraordinary basilica on the Kara Dagh plateau and how its design blends many traditions.

This study analyzes a distinctive church that blends local Anatolian practice with imported ideas, highlighting how plans, galleries, and decorative details come together in a monastic setting.

The text focuses on architectural features, from the ground-floor arcade to upper galleries, and explains why this building does not fit the earlier Kara Dagh type. It traces influences from Hellenistic coast lands, the Syrian decorative band, and centralised basilica forms, showing how builders adapted foreign ideas to local needs without sacrificing their own tradition.

• How the structure’s ground plan and upper galleries differ from earlier models
• Ways borrowed features from Constantinople, Syria, and Anatolia shaped its design
• Why the building signals a transitional moment in eastern church architecture
• Connections between the church’s monastic function and its architectural layout

Ideal for readers of architectural history and students of late antique church design.

About this title

Book Description

First published in 1909, this book was written by eminent scholars and archaeologists Sir William Mitchell Ramsay and Gertrude Bell, who undertook an expedition to investigate the Hittite and Byzantine site of Bin-Bir-Kilisse in Turkey in 1907. The book establishes the chronology of Byzantine churches in the region.

Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0265739640
• ISBN 13: 9780265739648
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 622