1. Geographic positioning

Leaving behind us the road from Ortahisar towards Zelve heading south, shortly before the ascent towards Ak tepe, we reach a landscape full of vineyards, the valley of Kızıl Çukur (the “red valley”) and Güllü Dere (“gorge of roses”) and a group of rocky formations and eroded conical shapes. The volcanic rock here is rose coloured.

Two kilometres after the Ak tepe crossroads¹ we reach one of these cones, which houses the church of Niketas the Stylite with wall paintings which predate the iconoclastic period. Most churches, chapels or hermitages in this area, for that matter, contain wall paintings in the same style and of a similar date. To the northwest of the church of the Stylite Niketas, in the Zelve area,² we find several similar examples, about twenty, which, in contrast to the church in question which is quite remote, are built one next to another. The entire area can be explored on foot within two or three hours. The church of the Stylite Niketas is to the north of the church of Peter and Paul and southeast of the church of Joachim and Anna. It is important to place to the north, slightly to the northwest of Zelve, in the valley of Paşabağ or “garden of the Paşa”, the Hermitage of the Monk Symeon with the Church of St. Symeon the Stylite which contains wall paintings dating to the 10th century.

2. Tradition on the Stylites

The characterization “stylite” derives from the Greek word “stylos” meaning “column” and refers to a class of ascetics who, already during the early Christian period retreated into the desert of Syria and, through fasting and prayer atop a column, continuously tried to reach their ideal aspiration. They believed, in other words, that by dispelling every bodily need and purifying their flesh in this way, they could achieve salvation of their soul. Tradition suggests that the first Stylite was Symeon in 423. Palladios, Gregory of Nazianzos, Lucian of Antioch and others have recorded all manner of exercise, self-denial and abstinence performed by anachorites and which exceeded human limitations.

2.1. Tradition on saints with the name Niketas

It is worth noting that there are many Orthodox saints and martyrs with the name Niketas. In particular, one can mention Hosios Niketas the wonder-working Stylite of Preslav the Russian, who is celebrated together with Symeon the Wonderous (24th May) and must not be confused with Saint Niketas the Stylite, disciple of Saint Symeon the Stylite (1st September), local Cappadocian ascetic about whom we have no other information or reports apart from the church dedicated to him in the valley of Kızıl Çukur.

2.2. The cult of the Stylite Niketas in Cappadocia

In Cappadocia, the eerie landscape and natural conical and concave volcanic rock formations, as well as the ease in carving the malleable material, facilitated the ascetics’ isolation. Stylites in particular, found an ideal place for their anachoreticism; thus the area is full of monuments, chapels and hermitages which, due to a lack of written documentation, are not always possible to be identified. The hermitage of the Stylite Niketas is one of the few which can be easily recognized.

Jerphanion had already ascertained a particular cult of Symeon the Stylite in the area, through the existence of a church which contained several scenes of the life of the saint on the other side of Ak tepe. On an inscription found in the monument in question, the petitioner Niketas is identified as a “stylite” and refers to Symeon as a paragon.

The problem is that the existence of a “stylite” presupposes the existence of a “stylos”, a pillar. What "pillar" is being referred to in this particular case? The steeply rising rocks in this eroded landscape could be considered as pillars, offered by nature to the stylites. A pillar could also be considered any pre-existing construction of a similar shape, such as the column of Theodosius and Arcadius in Constantinople during the 13th century, used by St. Stephanos.³ The concept of the pillar often extended so as to cover even a cell built on the top, which thus becomes a “confined pillar”; and in this case the stylite is “inclusus” or “confined”, a description which could be used for Niketas the Stylite, given the positioning of his hermitage, as described below.

3. Dating of the church at Kızıl Çukur

Dating the construction of the church is difficult and is inevitably placed before the iconoclastic period, given that its iconographic decoration dates from this period. Rodley suggests that this church is one of the oldest in the area.⁴Thierry supports that the wall decorations date from the second half of the 7th or beginning of the 8th century; its construction must therefore date from earlier. Evidence supporting the antiquity of the complex has been lost. The church also present elements of historical interest as its founder, on an inscription in the interior, is referred to as “kleisourarch”. This reference to the institution of the kleisourarch, and by extension of kleisarchia and kleisoura verifies, according to researchers that the church was built before the end of the 7th century.⁵

These observations, however, refer only to the monument’s initial form. Certain very serious interventions which expanded the space to almost double its size, as well as the opening-passage in the apse, date from much later, perhaps even from the middle of the 20th century when the area was repopulated by villagers who used the church as a stable and for food storage.

4. Historical research on the monument

G. de Jerphanion does not mention the monument. On the other hand, G. P. Schiemenz’s descriptions of his visits in 1959, 1965 and 1967 are extremely detailed: “We discovered the church by accident on the 26th September 1959. Between the 9th and 10th August 1965, after hours of searching, we found it again and studied it in detail. A third visit on the 15th August 1967 helped answer numerous questions, although more minor damage which had occurred in the meantime meant that certain details had been lost”.⁶ According to Schiemenz, Budde was the first to publish, in 1958, a photograph of the domed narthex looking in from the western entrance. The comment is limited to a very generalized reference to the area and makes it impossible for the church to be located.⁷

At the same time as Schiemenz, Michel and Nicole Thierry were also studying the monument, particularly its inscriptions.⁸ They continued their work during the next decades; they even mention the opening, in 1987 of a path leading to three conical rock formations one of which was the Stylite Niketas’. Later, Catherine Jolivet-Lévy also included the monument in her comparative studies based mainly on the evidence presented by the aforementioned researchers.⁹

5. Description of the church

The egg-shaped rock in which the church of the Stylite Niketas is housed sits on ground which inclines gently from west to north. It includes three cavities. Two of these are at ground level while the third is at the top of the rock. There is the church dedicated to the cult of the stylite, a chapel, and at the top the hermitage, in which the stylite hallowed.

The largest of these cavities is the church of Niketas the Stylite, which is also referred to by locals as Üzümlü kilise of Kızıl Çukur, which means “the church of the grapes of the red valley” – in contrast to the Üzümlü kilise to the north in Zelve. The title refers to the church’s interior painted decoration which includes grapes.

It is a small single-aisled basilica which, in its initial form, consisted of three basic parts: narthex, nave and bema with an apse. The spaces are carved facing west (entrance) to east (apse).

5.1. Narthex

Entry into the church is through an arch carved into a rectangular façade, slightly narrower than the narthex which follows. Schiemenz notes that a wooden construction must have existed here because there are holes for supporting poles.¹⁰ The entrance’s arch is 55 cm. deep and 1,53 m. wide. The visitor first enters a square narthex measuring 1,90 m. wide and 1,80 m. long. The ceiling is carved into a domed shape; in its centre the height reaches approximately 2,30 to 2,35 m. while the walls reach a maximum height of 1,80 depending on the ground’s inclination. A large arcosolium to the left covers the entire northern side of this space. Its dimensions are 97 cm. deep and, at the bottom, it is 1,50 m. wide. Closer inspection shows that the arcosolium is quite damaged. The back wall, at a height of 85 cm. bears another cavity. The arcosolium in the church seems to have been destined to be the saint’s grave, as it was common practice for the area’s ascetics to prepare their own graves.

5.2. Nave

The opening from one space to the next, 70 cm. wide, forms an arch which creates a barrel vault destined for painting. It is however severely damaged so it is impossible to know its initial height. The nave is quite a bit larger, rectangular, and its north side is, once again, noticeably wider. Essentially, the entire northern wall has been carved expanding the space in this way to almost double its original size. The nave measures 2,75-2,80 m. in length. The width increases from west to south from 2,25 m. and reaches 3,50 m. The height also increases from west to east; it starts from 3,10 m. and reaches almost 3,35 m. The adjacent room, with a flat roof, measures 3 m. from north to south and 2 m. from east to west, and is 1,90 m. high. In the middle of the north wall is a large cavity between two smaller ones. Characteristic of the nave are the sides of the domed roof which continue to the ground forming the walls.

5.3. The sanctuary space

Between the nave and the cavity of the apse is an arch 2,25 m. high. The opening was approximately 1,10 m. wide but now, this is also quite damaged. The sanctuary’s altar has not been found.

Moving through the apse, which was initially semicircular, 2,20 to 2,29 m. wide and probably quite shallow 1,80 m., the visitor notices that interventions to the north side continue, altering the space’s form and expanding the apse to an almost rectangular storage space. Here, as in the nave, an adjacent room with flat roof and three cavities, has been added. The fact that two metal rings have been found in these cavities alongside dung and straw suggest that this room was used for keeping donkeys. Opposite this extension, in the southern end of the original apse, an opening the size of a small door, 60 cm. wide and 50 cm. high carved into the external wall of the rock formed the entrance to the stable.

The current height of the sanctuary in approximately 3,10 m. The fact that the space is lower than the nave gave Thierry the opportunity to speak about “an architectural game of domes and transitions between the church’s three spaces: narthex, nave and apse”.¹¹ According to the same researcher, this particularity is a basic element of the monument’s space organization and iconographic program.

6. Other monuments in the neighbouring area

Outside the cone and to the south, is a carved cavity, now largely eroded, and within it a smaller one to the east. One can sit in an embryonic position in its shade. We can also assume that other cavities in these cones were used for storing votive offerings from pilgrims who flocked around ascetics.

East of the cone is another small chapel. This contains only one room, almost square, with a flat roof and a carved apse at its far end. Smaller carved cavities in the space around the apse were probably functional.

A larger cone to the west of the aforementioned one appears to have two more entrances carved into the rock, which today are inaccessible, high above the ground. Signs of erosion show that the landscape has changed considerably and that the ground was once at the same level.

Finally, at the top of the cone – where Niketas’ hermitage was – one side of the rock has collapsed revealing in the flat roof a rectangular cavity containing a carved Roman cross, visible from the ground. This space is now inaccessible. L. Rodley suggests that this space was initially accessed via a stairway carved into the rock,¹² something also supported by Schiemenz who refers to a groove carved into the rock which could still be used in his day. In 1994, N. Thierry confirms this inaccessibility without the use of scaffolding.

7. Assessment

These three rock cavities appear to be ideal as well as characteristic anachorite arcossettlements. The hermitage of the Stylite Niketas, like that of the monk Symeon in Zelve, is inapproachably placed atop a cone. The church of the Stylite Niketas is a representative example of a single-aisled basilica of the early Middle Ages (late 7th – early 8th century), similar in its space layout and order to St. Symeon in Zelve and other churches in the area. It is considered one of the earliest carved monuments in Cappadocia. The adjacent chapel is also a common combination in the wider area, which in some cases is joined with the main church – as in the church of the Forty Martyrs in Sobesos – but here it remains separate at a small distance.