Guide
In the Aşağı Kayabaşı quarter of Niğde stands a basilica-plan church built of cut basalt, now in use as a mosque and known locally as the Begum Mosque. Eight symmetrically placed columns divide the main space into three aisles, the central one wider than those at the sides, and stairs to the right of the entrance on the west front lead up to the gallery. The building is a long rectangle with, at its eastern end, an apse section of three iwans, the middle one large and the flanking pair smaller. Geometric ornament appears on the saddle-shaped ceiling and on the inner faces of the arches linking the columns.
The church is well preserved inside and out, though there are losses on the ceiling and in the wall paintings. You go down to it from the main road by a flight of steps. The front and both sides have porticoes covered by barrel vaults and painted yellow, blue and brick red. The doorway is framed in the form of a cross, and above it is an inscription in Greek dated 1835. The decoration that once ran on either side of the door and above it has been covered over with whitewash. The building is within walking distance of central Niğde.
