Interesting places in Turkey

Kanytelleis (today Kanlidivane) is located about eight kilometers east of Kizkalesi, the ancient Korykos. The relics of the town are grouped around a collapse doline 70 m in diameter and 60 m deep, similar to the two karst collapses of the nearby Corycian caves (Cennet ve Cehennem)

The date of foundation of the town is not known, but an inscription of the Teukros from Olba found on the spot suggests that the town belonged to the priestly state of Olba-Diokaisareia about 30 km to the northwest in the second century BC. This is also indicated by the Olbian symbol on the tower.
On other inscriptions it can be read that the town later belonged to Elaiussa Sebaste. During the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II in the fifth century AD, it was extended and renamed Neopolis. In the 11th century the city was probably abandoned.

The only evidence from pre-Christian times is a former three-storey high Hellenistic defence and residential tower on the southern edge of the doline, made of polygonal masonry with the aforementioned Olbian sign. A dedicatory inscription for Zeus Olbios points to the second century BC.

Two reliefs are embedded in the walls of the doline. On the south side there is an image of six members of the Armaronxas family (father, mother of their four children) and on the north side a portrait of a Roman warrior.

In the southwest of the doline is the Byzantine Basilica I, a three-nave pillar basilica with a length of 31 metres and a width of 18.40 metres, which has been preserved in large parts. The narthex to the west is accessed by a three-part archway, whose capitals are decorated with large lobed acanthus leaves.
The largely preserved wall leading to the church room is broken in the middle by a rectangular portal. The apse opens a twin window with horseshoe arches to the east.

If you walk around the doline in a clockwise direction, Basilica I is followed by a Turkish cemetery and a cistern from Hellenistic times

According to an inscription by the founder, the three-nave Basilica IV Papylos Church, located in the northeast of the dolina, is called Papylos Church. It was built at the end of the fifth century and is the youngest and best preserved basilica of Kanytelleis. Most of the walls are still up to 8 metres high.

Only the south wall has completely broken away. In the west, the basilica is preceded by a forecourt of 15 metres width and approximately 10 metres depth. Half an arch still stands from a three-part open arch position, the western entrance to the 3.60 m deep and 14 m wide narthex.

The approximately 22 meter long church room is divided by two column arcades into two narrower side aisles and a 6.20 meter wide central nave, each with a door to the narthex. In the northern wall, projecting stone supports indicate the position of the side gallery. The passage from the central nave to the choir was vaulted by a high triumphal arch, of which the left approach can still be seen.

120 m above Basilica IV is the so-called three-column tomb, measuring 4.1 x 5.7 metres, dating from the third and fourth centuries AD. Its special feature is that it has three columns instead of the usual four. The unadorned burial chamber is completely empty.

Further west, at about the same level as the three-column tomb, is the temple tomb of the Aba, a wealthy lady who probably lost both her husband and her two sons in battle or in an epidemic. An inscription was placed on the archway, which contained both the name of the founder and the place name "Kanytelleis".