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 formations located in
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 ...
, western Turkey, which were used historically as dwelling and sanctuary.
Urumkuş Rocks are situdated in the Alanlı area, northeast at Döğer town in
Ä°hsaniye District
Ä°hsaniye District is a district of Afyonkarahisar Province of Turkey. Its seat is the town Ä°hsaniye.
The rock formation has quite steep sides. There are rock-cut dwellings and a chapel on one of the two large cliffs. On the other rock, there are only burial chambers. At the entrances of the burial chambers, reliefs as well as figures made with madder are found that belong to the
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 ...
period. There are traces of foundations carved into the rock, niches, sacrificial pools, rock altars and
cairn
A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ).
Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...
s on the top and sides of the rock. This shows that the rock was used as a sanctuary and perhaps a residential area during the
Phrygia
In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''PhrygÃa'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River.
Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...