The Monastery of Mor Abraham of Kashkar

The monastery sits on the southern escarpment of a hill and overlooks the Mesopotamian plain. The view of the monastery is partially blocked by a hill, which may have served as an element of camouflage in the past. The surrounding walls of the monastery are only discernible to the west and the southeast. There are many other remaining foundations and free-standing walls that used to belong to structures which do not survive today (Pekol and Katrakazis 2022, 88).

The complex on the west has rectangular inner spaces, some of which continue as rock-carved spaces. This complex seems to be the living quarters of the monastery, as it includes an inner courtyard and a chapel. The chapel is covered with a dome made of brick and stone, a technique also seen in the arches of its windows. Its eastern end has arched niches which are plastered and carry traces of crimson paint. Despite the ground floor remaining today, the walls above this western complex demonstrate that there was at least a first floor on some of these spaces. The monastery is built into a slope and complements the surrounding topography.

To the east of this complex lies the main church of the monastery, which is rectangular in an east-west direction. From the exterior, the apse is covered with a quadrangular filling, concealing its semicircle. The nave is also covered with a flat roof on the outside. The whole roof has been covered with concrete and has a date of November 1972 incised on it. The church has a later portico parallel to the nave. To the north of the portico is a narthex. It rises higher than the portico and has three rectangular windows on its southern wall. These windows have decorative carvings on their outer frames. The narthex is also a later addition, as is understood from the construction method of rough (nearly rubble) stones with near to no mortar, which contrasts with the smooth cut stone of the main church. This narthex is covered with a barrel vault and has arcades on both the north and south. To its east, it is perpendicularly connected to another rectangular space. The nave has one entrance on its south wall, from the narthex. A stone with Syriac inscription has been laid above the lintel of the entrance to the nave. The north and south walls consist of three blind, rounded arches which abut to the outer walls and rest on embedded pillars with plain, rectangular abaci. The space between these arches has been filled in today and the original arcade is best seen in the arch above the door on the west wall that opens up to the narthex. Looking further above this arch, a horizontal cornice with dentils below can be seen, which probably originally spanned the whole length of the south wall (Pekol and Katrakazis 2022, 88-89).

At the east end is a semicircular apse, which is at a higher level than the nave. The apse archivolt has an intricately carved string course with palmettes, acanthus and other motifs, and sits on columns with acanthus capitals. A horizontal molding circles the  semicircle of the apse, located at the level where the archivolt of the apse begins. At the center of the bottom of the conch is a relief which was part of a larger cross. The eastern, semicircular wall of the apse was originally lined with a stylobate on which ten columns once stood. Initially, the columns in the apse would possibly have an arcade between them, which also carried rich decoration. On the eastern corner of the north wall of the apse, a small portion of an arcade which used to rest on columns can be seen. Few decorative details give a hint to the delicate and rich craftsmanship of the first, probably 6th century construction. Other parts of this combination are used in random places as spolia. The side chambers flanking the apse extend outside the line of the nave’s north and south walls. They are covered with a barrel vault in an east-west direction (Pekol and Katrakazis 2022, 88-91).

Multiple hermitage spaces are visible in the valley surrounding the monastery. Some of these caves, which probably sheltered the monks, have masonry walls in southern direction which faces the valley (Pekol and Katrakazis 2022, 88).

VIRGINIA SOMELLA