The Monastery of Mor Lo´ozor

The archaeologist Barış Altan points out that the use of large cut-stone blocks (about 2 meters wide)in the southern wall indicate either an earlier structure or spolia (Altan, Barış. ‘Monastery of Mor Loʿozor’. In Syriac Architectural Heritage at Risk in TurʿAbdin, edited by Elif Keser Kayaalp, 66–69. Istanbul: KMKD, 2022: 66).

The monastic complex occupied a squared area of around 20 meters per side, surrounded by a three-meter-high stone wall, with the entrance door sited on the left corner of the west wall. It supposedly still preserves its original structure and appearance. The main door leads to a closed porch, and it is understood from an undated inscription on the door that the porch was built by Priest Yusuf as a later addiction (Cr, Şükran. ‘Mor Lo’ozor Manastiri’. Mukaddime 2, 2010).

The main courtyard of the monastery is entered through a round arched door opened from the northern wall of the porch. On the east side of the courtyard, there is a section rising with pointed arched columns, and behind it is a very small and modest church, considering the size of the monastery, the floor of the courtyard is natural rock. Unfortunately, a large part of Mor Lo’ozor south wall was destroyed and damaged due to long-term disuse and neglect (Yaşar, 2010).

There are large rooms on the west side of the monastery, made of regular cut stone, which probably housed the monks. Considering the size of the rooms, it might be inferred that a number from eight to ten priests could comfortably stay in each room. Unfortunately, these rooms were randomly excavated by treasure hunters and the floor was destroyed. The building located in the northeastern part of the monastery has two floors, accessed from the courtyard by a staircase made of cut stone.

What makes Mor Lo’ozor Monastery special in the Ṭūr ‘Abdīn region is the stylite tower in its courtyard. This architectural type, despite being well testified by written sources, has been preserved only in another site, i.e., Dayr Stūne (Dayro d-estuneh) near Nisibis. The column of Mor Lo’ozor requires further attention as it is a unique example of a masonry stylite’s tower, for it is constructed in cut-stone courses while other seclusion towers are rather built of monolithic stones, Mor Lo’ozor tower has a hole in the middle, that connects with the channels on the rock surface of the courtyard. Its outer diameter is about 2.5 meters, and its height is about 7 meters (Altan, 2022: 66-7). Furthermore, it is a particularly interesting element also by virtue of having been built in the eighth century, when the region was under Arab rule (Keser Kayaalp 2021: 194). Unfortunately, the upper part of this tower, which was built of cut stone on a four-step pedestal, was destroyed (Yaşar, 2010).

The church in the monastery, as previously mentioned, is modest and small compared to the size of the monastery. It is a north-south oriented structure with a bipartite square plant. One half constituted the ritual section and the other was the community area, and the two spaces communicated through two entrances (Yaşar, 2010).

There is a number of caves in the northwestern part of the monastery, artificially cut into the rocks. These caves have a rectangular shape and are about two- or three-square meters wide. Some of them contain large amounts of human bones, showing that they were used as burials for some time. Since no records were found in these caves, we cannot say anything about the nature of the graves (Yaşar, 2010).