Arkhyz (also Nizhny Arkhyz russian: Архыз; krc, Ырхыз, ''Irxız''; "mudflows") is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the valley of the

Bolshoy Zelenchuk River The Bolshoy Zelenchuk (russian: Большой Зеленчук) is a river in the North Caucasus, Russia. It is a left tributary of the Kuban into which it flows at Nevinnomyssk. It is long, and has a drainage basin of .Karachay–Cherkessia The Karachay-Cherkess Republic (russian: Карача́ево-Черке́сская Респу́блика, ''Karachayevo-Cherkesskaya Respublika''; krc, Къарачай-Черкес Республика, ''Qaraçay-Çerkes Respublika''; Cir ...

Greater Caucasus The Greater Caucasus ( az, Böyük Qafqaz, Бөјүк Гафгаз, بيوک قافقاز; ka, დიდი კავკასიონი, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; russian: Большой Кавказ, ''Bolshoy Kavkaz'', sometimes translat ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, about 70 km inland from the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

shore. The modern village was founded in 1923 near the confluence of the

Arkhyz Arkhyz (also Nizhny Arkhyz russian: Архыз; krc, Ырхыз, ''Irxız''; "mudflows") is a village in the valley of the Bolshoy Zelenchuk River, in the Republic of Karachay–Cherkessia, Greater Caucasus, Russia, about 70 km inland from t ...

and Pshish rivers. It is located in a mountainous region in the vicinity of the eponymous

aul An aul (; ce, oil; russian: аул) is a type of fortified village or town found throughout the Caucasus mountains and Soviet Central Asia, Central Asia. The word itself is of Turkic origin and simply means ''village'' in many Turkic language ...

sitting at an altitude of 1,450 meters. The elevation of the surrounding mountains is more than 3,000 meters above the sea. The population is

Zelenchuksky Churches

The

Zelenchuksky Churches The Zelenchuksky Churches or, Lower-Arkhyz Churches are located in an archaeological preserve extending for four kilometers around the ruins of Nizhnearkhyzskoe gorodishche near Arkhyz, Karachay–Cherkessia, Russian Federation. The site is tentativ ...

are an archaeological preserve extending for around the ruins of Nizhnearkhyzskoe gorodishche, tentatively identified as the medieval capital of

Alania Alania was a medieval kingdom of the Iranian Alans (proto-Ossetians) that flourished in the Northern Caucasus, roughly in the location of latter-day Circassia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and modern North Ossetia–Alania, from its independence from th ...

, a Christian state destroyed by the hordes of

Möngke Khan Möngke ( mn, ' / Мөнх '; ; 11 January 1209 – 11 August 1259) was the fourth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire, ruling from 1 July 1251, to 11 August 1259. He was the first Khagan from the Toluid line, and made significant reforms ...

in the 13th century. No Byzantine document mentions the name of this city, whereas

al-Mas'udi Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus ...

refers to it as Ma'as, or

Maghas Maghas or Maas — more properly, Mags or Maks — was the capital city of Alania, a medieval kingdom in the Greater Caucasus. It is known from Islamic and Chinese sources, but its location is uncertain, with some authors favouring North Ossetia an ...

. The most remarkable feature of the site is a cluster of three early medieval churches, whose construction is associated with the missionary activities of Patriarch

Nicholas Mystikos Nicholas I Mystikos or Nicholas I Mysticus ( el, Νικόλαος Α΄ Μυστικός, ''Nikolaos I Mystikos''; 852 – 11 May 925) was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from March 901 to February 907 and from May 912 to his death ...

in the Northern Caucasus. These structures bear much resemblance to the

Shoana Church The Shoana church (russian: Шоанинский храм, os, Суаны Уастырджы) is a Christian church that belongs to the historical Alanian Diocese. The church was built at the end of the tenth century, and is located on the terri ...

and

Senty Church Senty Church (russian: Сентинский храм) is a Christian church built in 965 in the territory of modern Karachay-Cherkessia (Russian Federation). It is situated on the left bank of the Teberda River, near the village of Nizhnyaya Teb ...

, situated in the neighbouring valleys. In the 19th century the churches were affiliated with the monastery of St. Alexander Nevsky. A monastic community was revived there after the fall of the Soviet Union. The North Church is supposed to have been the cathedral of the diocese of

between the 10th and 13th centuries. The dome rises to a height of 21 meters; the western wall is twice as long. The

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex ...

formerly contained a

baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

. A 19th-century traveller described the faded Byzantine frescoes that were still visible on its walls. The Central Church appears to have been conceived somewhat earlier than the two others, in the form of a regular cross, but was extended to the west during or shortly following the construction. It is much larger than the South Church, which was built of coarse rubble masonry, extensively restored by the monks in 1899, fell into disuse during the Soviet years, and was reconsecrated to St. Elijah in 1991. The South Church bears the distinction of being the oldest functioning church in all of Russia. Within 30 km from Nizhny Arkhyz a short grave inscription was discovered in 1888. Although it is written in Greek characters, the inscription (alternatively dated to 941 or 963) was interpreted by

Vasily Abayev Vaso (Vasily) Ivanovich Abaev ( os, Абайты Иваны фырт Васо; russian: Василий Иванович Абаев, also transliterated as Abayev and Abayti; 15 December 1900 – 18 March 2001) was an ethnically Ossetian Soviet ...

as the earliest preserved text in the

Ossetic language Ossetian (, , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Greater Caucasus. It is the native language of the Ossetia ...

. Another tourist attraction in the valley is a

mandylion According to Christian tradition, the Image of Edessa was a holy relic consisting of a square or rectangle of cloth upon which a miraculous image of the face of Jesus had been imprinted—the first icon ("image"). The image is also known as the M ...

-typ
rock painting of Christ
datable to the 10th century but discovered only recently.

Observatory

Arkhyz is also the site of a Soviet astrophysical observatory which formerly boasted the world's largest solid-mirror

reflecting telescope A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...

(6 meters in diameter).''The Encyclopedia Americana''. Grolier Inc., 1988. . Page 180.

Notes

References

* Kuznetsov V.A. ''V Verkhovyakh Bolshogo Zelenchuka''. Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1977.
Zelenchuk churches: History and Views

External links

History of Arkhyz on arkhyz.info

The village of Arkhyz on dombayinfo.ru

Website of the Arkhyz mountain resort
Populated places established in 1923 {{Authority control Rural localities in Karachay-Cherkessia Churches in Karachay-Cherkessia