archer shooting bear, vintner and rabbit, The Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross (915-921), Akhdamar Islamd, Van region, Turkey
Image details
Contributor:
B.O'Kane / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
DTR26EFile size:
63.3 MB (5.2 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
5759 x 3840 px | 48.8 x 32.5 cm | 19.2 x 12.8 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
29 April 2013Location:
Akhdamar Island, Van region, TurkeyMore information:
Akdamar Island (Turkish: Akdamar Adası), also known as Aghtamar or Akhtamar is the second by size of four islands in Lake Van in the south of Eastern Anatolia Region, Turkey, about 0.7 km2 in size, situated about 3 km from the shoreline. At the western end of the island a hard, grey, limestone cliff rises 80 m above the lake's level (1, 912 m above sea level). The island declines to the east to a level site where a spring provides ample water. It is home to a tenth-century Armenian Cathedral church, known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross (915-921), and was the seat of an Armenian Catholicos from 1116 to 1895. The architecture of the church is based on a form that had been developed in Armenia several centuries earlier; the best-known example being that of the seventh century St. Hripsime church in Echmiadzin, incorporating a dome with a conical roof. The unique importance of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross comes from the extensive array of bas-relief carving of mostly biblical scenes that adorn its external walls. The meanings of these reliefs have been the subject of much and varied interpretation. Not all of this speculation has been produced in good faith - for example, Turkish sources illustrate Islamic and Turkic influences behind the content of some of the reliefs, such as the prominent depiciton of a prince sitting cross-legged on a Turkic-style, low throne. Some scholars[ assert that the friezes parallel contemporary motifs found in Umayyad art - such as a turbaned prince, Arab styles of dress, wine imagery; allusions to royal Sassanian imagery are also present (Griffins, for example).