Rock architecture by country
A continuación se expone un listado no exhaustivo de las principales obras de la arquitectura rupestre en el mundo.
Saudi Arabia
The Nabataeans also lived in the territories of present-day Saudi Arabia. In the city of.
Armenia
In Armenia there is the.
Bulgaria
In Bulgaria there are numerous cave churches, among which the.
Other notable excavated temples are the monasteries of.
China
In the East, the Buddhists were the first to excavate caves to provide shelter for their monks during the rainy season.[14] The Buddhists excavated a multitude of grottoes as prayer temples, generally containing one or several sculptures of Buddha. Most of the Chinese cave works were created during the 12th centuries AD. C.[9] The three most important temple complexes in China are:.
Outside of religious architecture, in northern China there is a housing typology called "Yaodong"; caves used as homes, with a rectangular section at the base and topped with a semicircular vault, with widths of 3 to 4 meters and depths of 5 m. The caves were equipped with a chimney for smoke evacuation. The most elaborate ones have a decorated façade built with the removed stone itself. It is estimated that around 40 million Chinese live in this type of housing,[18] although not all Yaodong are excavated.
Egypt
The first excavated Egyptian buildings were most likely the tombs of their pharaohs: beginning in the century BC. C., up to 39 tombs were excavated on the side of a mountain in.
The funerary complex is located about 20 km from the current city of Menia. The largest tombs had interior columns, being similar to sculpted replicas of the "truly" built temples.
The burials in mastabas are even earlier, dating back to the third millennium BC. C. Many of them were dug into the ground and covered using techniques and materials that varied over time. The evolution of the mastabas towards the pyramids, which occurred around the century BC. C., did not eliminate the underground burial chambers. During the reign of Akhenaten (1353-1336 BC) the city of Tell el-Amarna was founded, where several underground tombs or hypogeums were excavated,[19] and around the century BC. C., and in view of the incessant looting of the visible pyramidal tombs, the pharaohs finally opted for entirely underground burials, more discreet and hidden from pillage. The most important hypogeum complexes are those of:.
The three valleys meet in present-day Luxor. The walls and ceilings of these tombs were plastered and richly ornamented with polychrome drawings or reliefs, and the largest, such as the tomb of the sons of Ramses II, reached 443m in length, with rooms more than 15m wide.
Another notable work is the temple of Deir el-Bahari, from the century BC. C., part of which is built, and part excavated in the rock. Even so, the most ambitious work of cave architecture from ancient Egypt is the complex of.
Spain
Most of the rock production in Spain can be classified into two large groups: one dates back to the Bronze Age and the Celtiberian culture, and extends throughout the north of the peninsula. The second arose after the Muslim occupation during the 19th century, and is especially evident in the southeast of the peninsula, with the communities of Andalusia and Valencia being the richest in archaeological remains, which in some cases are still inhabited.[3].
The rock groups with the most content of excavated architecture are:
Rock dwellings of various types and periods have been documented in the towns of: Guadix, Benalúa, Zújar, Benamaurel, Purullena and Sacromonte (Granada); Batán Caves in Paterna (Valencia); Tariego (Palencia); Perales de Tajuña (Madrid); Rojales (Almería) and Alcalá del Júcar (Albacete). In Cieza (Murcia region) the rock settlement was strongly active until the middle of the century, with several nuclei in places such as El Búho, Toledillo, Losar de la Fuente, El Realejo, El Argaz and others, all in the vicinity of important archaeological sites belonging to the Neolithic, Argaric, Iberian, Roman and Andalusian periods.[22].
There are also many churches and hermitages wholly or partially rock, with provinces such as Cantabria or Palencia standing out for their abundance. Some examples are those of Olleros de Pisuerga, Hermitage of San Pelayo "Hermitage of San Pelayo (Villacibio)") in Villacibio and Hermitage of San Vicente in Cervera de Pisuerga in the province of Palencia, or the Rock Church of Arroyuelos, Church of San Juan de Socueva "Rock Church of San Juan (Arredondo)"), hermitage of Cambarco, hermitage of Santa María de Valverde "Santa María de Valverde (Valderredible)") and hermitage of Santa Justa "Ermita de Santa Justa (Ubiarco)") in Ubiarco in the autonomous community of Cantabria, or the hermitages of Ojo Guareña in Burgos, among many others.[22] Rock architecture is also widespread in the south of the peninsula. It is worth highlighting, as an example, the Mozarabic church of Bobastro, with three naves (10th century).
Favored by the soft volcanic rock, cave architecture reached a notable development in the Canary Islands. Several sculpted caves used as storage have been found. One of the most striking examples is the Cenobio de Valerón, on the island of Gran Canaria, although there are others that are less known.[23] Another representative piece is the so-called painted cave of Gáldar, on the same island. Similar constructions also exist in the Iberian Peninsula, such as the caves of Bocairente[24] (Valencia). Also in the Balearic Islands it is worth mentioning the possession "Possession (architecture) of Es Cosconar"), whose houses were built into the rock.[25].
United States and Mexico
There are numerous rock settlements in the southwestern United States, especially in the canyons "Canyon (geomorphology)") of the Colorado River and the Rio Grande, and in the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.[2] This type of construction also occurs in the state of Chihuahua, in Mexico.
The constructions are dated between the 11th and 14th centuries,[2] and are believed to have been made by the Anasazi people; farming tribes, also called in English cliff-dwellers, considered the ancestors of the Zuñi and Hopi Indians. The small cities of the Anasazi took advantage of the natural concavities of the terrain or were directly excavated, and consisted of numerous rooms dedicated to rest, meetings and ceremonies. Its location on steep slopes served as protection and hiding from attacks by nomadic tribes (Navajos, Apaches, etc.).[2].
Among the most representative examples of this architecture are:.
Ethiopia
In Ethiopia there is the exceptional case of the.
Georgia
Also in Georgia there are examples of religious complexes sculpted into the side of a mountain, highlighting among them:.
India
Hindu Viharas are Buddhist shelter temples imported from China. In the north and center of the country it was common practice to take advantage of natural caves or excavate the rock to create these temples. Over time, facades were added to the entrances of some grottoes. As was the case in Western civilizations, artisans sculpted the details of the wooden architecture of the time into the rock.[33] The grottoes are characterized by having columned walls "Column (spelunking)") and by a semicircular vault that would sometimes adopt a characteristic horseshoe shape with grooves. This type of vault is called Chandrashala").[34] Another characteristic feature of Indian Buddhist architecture is the octagonal section pillars.[35] Around 1,200 of these excavated temples are preserved in India, almost all of Buddhist origin.[33] The first cave works in India correspond to the time of the Mauryan Empire, around the century BC,[36] and are located at the point of penetration of Buddhism: in the state of Bihar, in the northeast of the country. There are the temple of Bandar and the caves of Sudama and Lomas Rishi, in the Barabar complex (image), considered the oldest cave remains in the subcontinent.[36] A distinctive feature of these first temples from the Mauryan era was that they sometimes presented an interior chamber with extraordinarily polished surfaces.[37].
Among the most famous sets of Viharas are:.
Other Indian rock temples are:
Iran
In the cities of Naqs-i Rustam and Persepolis (present-day Iran) there are examples of late rock tombs,[46] attributed to the Achaemenid Persian kings of the century BC. C. Darius I, Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I and II.[5] The tombs are richly ornamented, and its curious cruciform façade evokes the façade of an Achaemenid palace, with the characteristic double bull capitals.[46].
There are also rock towns from the century or like that of.
Israel
In Israel there are several tombs near the Mount of Olives (Jerusalem):
Jordan
In the territory of present-day Jordan, the Nabataean civilization developed between the 2nd centuries BC. C. and II d. C. About 200 km south of Amman is the city of Petra, an urbanized necropolis erected in a cirque of mountains and cliffs, whose most important constructions are due to Aretas IV (9 BC - 40 AD).[55] Among the monuments of Petra the following stand out:.
The complex of the Royal Tombs, formed by the tombs of the Urn, the Silk, the Corinthian and the Palace:.
Türkiye
In the Anatolian peninsula (current Türkiye), and in contact with the Egyptian civilization, it developed from the century BC. C. the culture of the Hittites, great stone sculptors. The most notable example of its rock-sculpted architecture is:.
Heirs of the Hittite Empire were the states of Phrygia, Cilicia and Cappadocia, although the provinces of Hattusa and Lycia are also rich in this type of architecture.[5].
The Phrygians established their capital in Gordion, where between the 8th and 7th centuries BC. C. they excavated megaron-type temples—considered the predecessors of Greco-Roman temples—[5] and various mausoleums, altars, niches and tombs. Among the most representative rock works of the Phrygian civilization are:
The Lycians settled in southern Anatolia around the century BC. C. Its necropolises carved into cliffs are famous, in which the civil wooden architecture typical of the time, highly influenced by Greek art, is represented sculpted. The Lycian style is very geometric, based on the right angle, and in its late period it incorporates Ionic columns and figurative sculpture.[5] 1085 tombs have been counted,[9] the most representative examples being:.
In the region of Cappadocia, Hittite, Neo-Hittite, Greek and Roman cultures have occurred throughout history, although the majority of the production that has survived to this day is from the Christian era.[5] The soil of this region, formed by volcanic sediments, and very easy to drill, has a particular orography of stone formations on which churches, monasteries and true underground cities have been sculpted, with a predominance of the Byzantine style, imitated in the rock carving, and also with influences from Armenian and Syrian Christianity, as can be seen by the use of the barrel vault and the horseshoe apse typical of early Christian basilicas.[5].
The oldest churches and monasteries date back to the 16th century and continued to be built until the arrival of Islam in the 19th century, with up to 150 of these constructions being counted. sheltered about 100,000 people,[67] the most representative settlements being those of:.
The Derinkuyu settlement was up to 20 levels deep, with a total area of several square kilometers. It had, among other rooms, a cruciform chapel measuring 20 by 9 meters, and was connected underground to Kaymakli, an older settlement, through a 9 km long corridor.[67] A peculiarity in the architecture of these cities is the absence of facades or exterior decoration, focusing all the effort on the interiors.[9].
Over time, Christian churches were also invaded by the population and repurposed as homes, stables or granaries. The Zelve Valley is an example of this phenomenon, which survived until the middle of the century, when the authorities forced the population to abandon their settlements.[5] The Göreme area, where a large number of this type of architecture is grouped, has been converted into a National Park and declared a World Heritage Site in 1985.
Ukraine
Among others, the excavated monastery stands out.