Ayazini is a village in the

İhsaniye District İhsaniye District is a district of Afyonkarahisar Province of Turkey. Its seat is the town İhsaniye.Afyonkarahisar Province Afyonkarahisar Province (), often shortened to Afyon Province, is a Provinces of Turkey, province in western Turkey. Its area is 14,016 km2, and its population is 747,555 (2022). The provincial capital is Afyonkarahisar. Adjacent provinces a ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its population is 945 (2021). It is a historical place settled by Phrygians, Ancient Romans, Medieval Greeks and Seljuks. There are dwellings, churches and tomb chambers in

rock-cut architecture Rock-cut architecture is the creation of structures, buildings, and sculptures by excavating solid Rock (geology), rock where it naturally occurs. Intensely laborious when using ancient tools and methods, rock-cut architecture was presumably combi ...

at the archaeological site.

Overview

The name of the settlement, a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

derivation of the Greek "Aya Sion" (), was changed to "Ayazin" in 1910. Ayazini took the municipality status on 29 December 1998. The status was revoked at the 2013 reorganisation due to the decrease of the village population to under 2,000.Law No. 6360
''

Official Gazette A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establish ...

'', 6 December 2012 . The village headman is Bekir Yılmaz.

Location

Ayazini is located north of

Afyonkarahisar Afyonkarahisar (, 'poppy, opium', ''kara'' 'black', ''hisar'' 'fortress') is a major city in western Turkey. It is the administrative centre of Afyonkarahisar Province and Afyonkarahisar District. Its population is 251,799 (2021). Afyon is in the ...

, and reachable east of the Afyonkarahisar-Eskişehir highway D.665 . It is situated in the so-called "Phrygian Valley".

History

The location has been used as a settlement since the Phrygian Period. There are family and single-person rock tomb chambers with lion figures and columns from the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

periods, churches and rock dwellings from the Byzantine Period, thanks to carving-suitable rocks. In addition there is the Avdalaz Castle with a cistern carved into massive rock. After the Byzantine era, the site was settled by the

Seljuk Seljuk (, ''Selcuk'') or Saljuq (, ''Saljūq'') may refer to: * Seljuk Empire (1051–1153), a medieval empire in the Middle East and central Asia * Seljuk dynasty (c. 950–1307), the ruling dynasty of the Seljuk Empire and subsequent polities * S ...

s. It was reported that there are more than 300 caves in various size used as dwelling and 35 churches and chapels. ;Rock-carved dwellings: Rock dwellings from the Early Byzantine Period are found in the entrance and inside the village. The dwellings have single rooms, rooms grouped side by side or one over the other. Some are accessible by steps or by tunnel-shaped passages from other rooms. In some rooms, there are benches and niches of various size for storing objects and candles or oil lamps. The rock dwellings on both sides of the entrance to Avdalaz Valley are large. The dwellings on one side is in multi-story form. In the inside, there are deep pits used as a hearth and warehouse. A circular room featuring seats side by side around the walls is accessible by an inclined tunnel. Next to this section, a slightly-elevated toilet room is carved into rock. ;Castle dwelling: There are multi-story dwellings resembling today's

apartment An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement (Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that ...

s in the rock-carved castle at the upper end of the Avdalaz Valley. A cistern is carved on the castle's ground. ;Rock church: A church structure carved into steep

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

rock is situated at the entrance to Ayazini. It has an

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

and a dome. Built in the 1000s, it has a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

structure with the adjacent rock chambers. ;Rock-cut tombs: The facade of the rock-carved tombs are in the form of columned openings arched with a figure of

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; ), also called Gorgo () or the Gorgon, was one of the three Gorgons. Medusa is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair; her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her wa ...

. Some tombs are decorated with lion figure reliefs. On one tomb, the owner couple is depicted.

Tourism

The Governor of Afyonkarahisar Province started the establishment of the "Phrygia Open-air Museum" with a visitor center under the project of "Restoration of Ayazini and Improvement of Village Streets". The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the Department of Archaeology of the

Afyon Kocatepe University Afyon Kocatepe University is a state university in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. It was established on July 3, 1992. In the 2021-22 academic year, a total of 29992 students were studying as 9534 associate degree, 17458 undergraduate, 2533 graduate a ...

support the project.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayazini, Ihsaniye Villages in İhsaniye District Hellenistic Phrygia Roman Phrygia Populated places of the Byzantine Empire Rock-cut architecture Tourist attractions in Afyonkarahisar Province Open-air museums in Turkey