Thousand and One Churches

Published in 1909 and long out of print, The Thousand and One Churches remains a seminal study of the postclassical monuments of Anatolia. Now a new generation of readers can learn of the extensive remains of the sprawling early Christian site known as Binbirkilise ("Thousand and One Churches," near Konya), excavated by Ramsay and Bell in 1907. The book provides extensive analysis of other early Christian and Byzantine sites across Anatolia that Bell visited at that time. Because many of the monuments have long since disappeared, this documentation is now invaluable, and Bell's extensive photographs provide a unique view of travel and archaeology more than a century ago. For this new edition more than 250 high-quality digitized images from the Gertrude Bell Archive at Newcastle University (UK) replace the original illustrations, and the editors' Foreword lays out the historical and cultural context for the undertaking. Ousterhout and Jackson recount the lives and careers of the two authors and the tale of their collaboration on the excavation and subsequent book. Publication was supported by a grant from the Joukowsky Family Foundation.