Çanlı Kilise stands on commanding ground within the bounds of Akhisar village, facing Hasan Dağı. It is a Byzantine church, and its interior is painted with frescoes of Christ and the apostles. Around it, cut into the rock, are houses of various sizes dating from the tenth to the fourteenth century, and an architectural survey of the settlement area east of the church identified two large churches, two chapels, and near them a monastery made up of small cells.
Excavations in and around the church produced copper coins, lead ampullae, fragments of glass bracelets, metal earrings, rings, written documents, and mummies and parts of mummies. Those mummies, dated broadly to the tenth to thirteenth centuries, are not at the site: they are displayed at the Aksaray and Niğde museums. The church is seventeen kilometres from Aksaray and four kilometres northeast of Akhisar village; by public transport you reach the village and then walk those four kilometres, so a car is easier.
Getting there
- Access
- 17 km from Aksaray and 4 km northeast of Akhisar village: public transport reaches Akhisar, and from there it is a 4 km walk. A car makes it easier.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Aksaray as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 0.6 °C in January to 23.6 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (46 mm) and lightest in August (6 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
