Binbirkilise

Binbirkilise — Turkish for "Thousand and One Churches" — is a sprawling field of early Byzantine ruins scattered across the northern slopes of the Karadağ volcanic massif in ancient Lycaonia, about 30 km north of Karaman. Some 50 church ruins survive, mostly dating to the 5th and 6th centuries and constructed from the local dark basalt stone, making this one of the densest concentrations of early Christian sacred architecture in all of Asia Minor. 19th-century explorers including William Ramsay surveyed and catalogued the site, bringing it to the attention of European scholarship. Today the remains lie largely unguarded across the villages of Madenşehri and Üçkuyu, with no ticket booth or visitor centre — lending the place the rare atmosphere of a genuine, unhurried archaeological discovery.