VirtualANI messageboard: Armenian architecture, art, archaeology, history: Yes, that's Keshik Kilise

Yalniz Kesis is the name of the village on the site (now abandoned). Thierry can't have gone there. If he did, I'm sure he would have commented on the fact that the church has been reused as an Alevi shrine, and that one of the "oratories" is a rare example of a double-apsed church.

I've probably been to a few other of those Divrigi-area churches that Thierry lists. I recognise a number of the names. And some of them I've tried to see but couldn't. For example, In 1999 I tried to visit the Narekavank site near Duruköy, but was turned back by some village guards on the road north from Kemaliye, and I've also looked for a church near Benkay/Adatepe (Pingan) that is mentioned as being in the hills to the south of the village in a couple of old travellers accounts - but I could not find it (it may be destroyed). There are still two Armenian churches in Adatepe/Pingan.