Fri July 12. [12 July 1907] Set off at 6 with Haidar and Nicoli and rode for 11/4 hours to Irkhala Dere lower down than Irkhala. At the bottom we found the village of Pelisrama, Turkman, and hunted out an agreeable old man to show us the churches. He took us a little lower down where on the right bank we found a great church carved in the rock, Alakisle. It was a cross with 5 domes, one in the middle and 4 at the corners. It had been frescoed and there were traces of red and white stucco work on the outside which was decorated with horseshoed niches. The small arches were all horseshoed inside, not I think the big arches. This was its plan [sketch]. To the S there was a long chamber with what looked like stalls for horses and the same to the N together with many rock cut rooms big and small all round. Then we went back to the village and upstream for about a mile to a built church they call Ilankisle standing under the cliff. A great boulder had destroyed the S wall and the W end. It is of the type of Yagdibash much niched outside, 3 apses, niched outside, a very high dome in the middle but the corners barrel vaulted. Much frescoed - the Virgin prominent. 8 pointed stars appeared on the outer walls and high up above the windows were two small panels with a dove and a lion on them. Brick work in the window arches. A very lovely place. I planned it quickly. At about 9 we set out again, the Turkman saying it was 4 hours to Changlikilese and 3 on to Akserai [Aksaray]. We rode to Changlikilesi in 3 and to Akserai in 2, but we went fast. It was bitter hot. We left Eskinez a little to the left and saw Cheltik a little to the right beyond. From here we rode S and round the corner of the hill soon catching sight of the church. The hill is topped by a cliff all of which is honey combed with rooms and caves. The dome is very high. 2 of the four piers have been knocked down - on purpose said Nicoli, and the dome will not stand long. Brick work in parallel lines on the outer walls and round the arches of the narrow windows. The parallel lines are also inside but can only be seen where the plaster has fallen away. Bricks inside over the windows. All the windows very much stilted. An apsed chapel to the N with a narthex continuing the church narthex, all this at a lower level. One dome, the rest barrel vaults and semidomes. The narthex opens at the N end into small rock cut chambers. I think this chapel was a later addition for niching appears on the N wall of the church inside the chapel narthex and the narthex is built over it. Similarly in the chapel. E of this chapel is a big vaulted chamber running N and S ending at the N in the rock. Below the church, S, are many rock cut chambers, very large and running far into the hill. These continue to the W and one of them is a 5 domed church. Further on a carved facade (horseshoe niches) with a mass of columbaria. I lunched and we set to work and got through in 3 hours, a great business in that heat. There is a good spring lower down the hill below the church. We rode straight down to a tiny village on the edge of the plain - the larger part of the same village is up under the cliff a little W of the church. At the bottom we saw Akserai far away, all set in gardens. It does not seem much inside but the gardens are delicious at this time of the year, the grapes ripening and the maize flowering. In the plain all the people were reaping their corn, Hassan D [Hasan Dagi] watching over all. We rode almost straight to our camp by dint of a few questions. It was pitched below the town by poplars and willows near the stream. There is a mill here and a stork's nest in the willows. Pretty tired. Tea and a cold bath and dinner and so to bed. Saw the new moon 2 days old.