Visualizing Countryside: Syriac Orthodox Architecture of Northern Mesopotamia

Visualizing Countryside: Syriac Orthodox Architecture of Northern Mesopotamia is a digital archive of photographs of medieval churches and monasteries in the Tur Abdin region in northern Mesopotamia (modern day south-east Turkey). It includes images of buildings, decorations, architectural details, and landscapes. Although most of the buildings photographed were built in the medieval era (roughly from the sixth to the fifteenth century), the archive also presents modern-day renovations and contemporary iconography and artwork embellishing these churches and monasteries. 

This  collection is available in two formats:

1. An open-access photo gallery, posted on both JSTOR and ARTSTOR.

2. An interactive StoryMap, available below.

All of the photographs were taken from 2008 – 2009 by Dr. Reyhan Durmaz. The collection was edited and archived by Majd Ayyad (mayyad@sas.upenn.edu) and Cole McCann-Phillips (colermp@sas.upenn.edu).

Project Sponsors and Supporters:
SAS Research Opportunity Grant, University of Pennsylvania
Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
UPenn Library
Price Lab for Digital Humanities
American Society of Church History
Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Republic of Turkiye