Madenşehri is 37 kilometres north of Karaman, and the first thing to understand about it is that a village sits inside the ancient site — which is why many of its buildings are gone. What still stands, even in part, is enough to show the art and architecture of the period.
At the entrance to the village is the largest of the Binbir Kilise — the thousand and one churches — buildings, known as Basilica One. It was first built in 500, ruined in the Arab raids and repaired around 900. The road running north from it passes a cemetery on both sides, where sarcophagi and their lids lie scattered on the surface; some are carved with figures in relief, others with only a cross.
Further along is the semicircular recess the villagers call ağzı açık, the open mouth, and opposite it, to the west, a basilica largely collapsed but keeping two arches below and a four-arched gallery above, with a large cistern nearby. On the left of the road into the village are the remains of Church Thirteen, with a house built on top of it. On the road from Madenşehri to Üçkuyu is a further site known as Yukarı Ören, the remains of an old Turkish village, and among its churches is Church Ten, the round-planned example of Binbir Kilise architecture.
Getting there
- Access
- In the middle of Karadağ, 37 km from central Karaman, reached by private car.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Karaman as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 0.7 °C in January to 23.5 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (47 mm) and lightest in August (6 mm). Long-term means for 1951-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
