Ancient cathedrals are civilization in the coursework of the Hellenistic

The Pontians are an ancient Greek individuals who can be traced back to the mid-eighth century B.C. Xenophon mentions their preliminary settlements
between Trapezous & Sinope, before the emergence of the Mithridatid Dynasty & Pontian Kingdom controlling the North coast of Asia Minor.
Philosophers & historians such as Diogenes, Diodorus, & Strabon make part of the past of this region. The influence of this power in the
region & over the Euxinos Pontos, its contribution to the trade, culture, & civilization in the coursework of the Hellenistic & Roman (�Byzantine�) periods
are well attested. The Ottoman conquest of the mid-fifteenth century threatened their influence, unity, & living conditions. They were subjected to
forceful islamization in the 17th century, in the coursework of which plenty of became crypto-Christians.



The first mass exoduses of the Pontians coincide with the Ottoman-Russian wars of 1828-29, 1853-56, 1877-78. Thousands of refugees fled
to North Caucasus and Georgia. The number of Pontians in the beginning of the twentieth century may be estimated at about 750,000. From 1916
to 1923, approximately 50 per cent, or 350,000 Pontians, were liquidated during the Pontian Genocide by the crypto-Jewish Young Turk
movement. The population which survived was again driven into exodus. Thousands sought refuge in countries such as France and USA.
190,000 of the survivors arrived in Greece before 1923. The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey did not include the Pontians
still alive in the region, most of whom had been forcibly converted to Islam. About 200,000 fled from 1916 to 1923 to the Caucasus, mostly to
Georgia and Russia. During the Stalin period, in 1937 mass displacements to Siberia took place; later from 1945 to 1949 most of the Pontians
were displaced to Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Siberia. In 1990-96, about 180,000 Pontians, mostly descendants of
those who fled from their homeland, could leave Russia, Kazakhstan, and Georgia, and arrived as refugees to Greece. Today, an estimated 1
million Pontians live on the northern and eastern shores of Euxinos Pontos, Crimea, Azofic Sea, Caucasus, and Georgia; 800-900 thousand in
Europe, the USA, and Australia; and 1.5 million in Greece. A great number of isalmized Pontians live in the historic Pontos, in Constantinople,
and in other metropolitan areas; 1 million of these speak the Pontian dialect.


Even though the islamized Pontians were for decades deprived of the right to communicate with the Pontians of Greece and of the countries of
the ex-Soviet Union, and even though they suffered for decades systematic policies of disarticulation of their communities, they continue to insist
on their particular Pontian identity, the sense of which has been increasing in the last decades and is being coupled with intellectual and cultural
enhancing. However, even careful attempts of the new Pontian intellectuals to express the history or cultural identity of this people, are facing
harsh measures by the Turkish authorities. Many of them are threatened, even with death. This repression is accompanied by pseudo-scientific
attempts by Turkish propagandists and so-called professors to distort the 3000 year old rich history of this people and of this area. The official
discourse claims that this historic people is of Turkish descent. Also, Pontians who keep contacts with Pontians in Greece are threatened, and
Pontian travelers from Greece during their visits to Pontos are subjected to strict control and surveillance by the Turkish authorities.



Lots of Pontian communities have preserved intact their Pontian language, which is known to be the closest to Ancient Greek. This language is
illegal today in Pontos and Turkey. There is no school where Pontians can learn their language; it is learned and passed on within the relatives.
Pontian children are forced to learn Turkish in school. It is reported that in simple schools there exists a network of student-informers who
denounce to their teachers Pontian pupils speaking between themselves in their own language. In high schools, the task of terrorization is
dedicated to racist and fascist groups such as the �Grey Wolves�. Pontian students are excluded from university and higher studies. Pontians who
try to express their Pontian conscience and culture through periodicals run a risk of being sentenced to jail.
Initially the Greek state denied the Pontians the right to their historical memory by seeking systematically and intentionally to conceal the events
of the Pontian Genocide and to minimize the culpability of all parties involved. Thus the only expressions of its existence became limited to dance,
song, music, and laography, which alone could not ensure continuation of Pontian existence and identity. Some reasons for the lack of reaction to
the genocide by Greece and the international community are as follows: the theory of misinterpreted version of history regarding the exchange of
populations in which the arrival of Pontian refugees to Greece is viewed as “repatriation”; the unethical pact of 1921 between the Bolsheviks and
the Kemalists based on which Kemalism was considered a liberation movement, which has in the past and still influences the Greek left; Greece’
s membership in NATO in 1952 and the domination of the NATO doctrine on the integrity of Turkey; the victims themselves, namely the Pontian
Greeks, have confronted the issue by trying to find a cultural and folkloristic answer to their problem rather than a political one; the Pontian
Genocide was overshadowed by the larger Armenian Genocide; there was no reference or mention to the genocide in the Treaty of Lausanne,
which sealed the end of the Asia Minor Catastrophe; the Greco-Turkish treaty of friendship of 1930 supposedly settled all open issues between
Greece and Turkey; the Second World War, the Civil War, the political turmoil in Greece that followed forced Greece to focus on its survival and
other problems rather than seek recognition of the genocide.
Fortunately the situation has now somewhat changed. Through the hard work of activists, authors, some politicians, historians, etc., recognition
of the genocide is gaining ground. In 1994, thanks to an initiative centered largely around PASOK deputy Michalis Charalambidis, Greece and
Cyprus officially acknowledged the Pontian Genocide, designating 19 May as the day of commemoration. In 1998 Greece recognized the
genocide of Asia Minor Greeks as a whole and designated 14 September as the day of commemoration. Several states within the USA have
officially recognized the Pontian Genocide, such as New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida (see resolutions here:
http://www.notevenmyname.com/8.html), Massachusetts, and Illinois. Armenia has referred to the “Greek Genocide” in a report to the council of
Europe, and in 2004 held an event commemorating the Pontian Genocide. In Australia in 2006 the issue has been raised in the Parliament of
Victoria by Minister of Justice Jenny Mikakos. In 2006 Stephen Pound, a member of the British house of Commons, recognized the Greek,
Armenian, and Assyrian genocides. In Serbia in 1998 an event commemorating the Pontian Greek victims of the Greek Genocide was held in the
Chapel of the Belgrade Theology School. In Germany, organizations such as Verein der Völkermordgegner e.V (i.e. "Union against Genocide") or
the initiative Mit einer Stimme sprechen (i.e. "Speaking with One Voice") aim at the official recognition of the genocide of Christian minorities in the
late Ottoman Empire. On 19 May 2007, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) issued a press release stating that the organization
"joins with Pontian Greeks - and all Hellenes around the world - in commemorating 19 May, the international day of remembrance for the
genocide initiated by the Ottoman Empire and continued by Kemalist Turkey against the historic Greek population of Pontus" and reaffirms its
"determination to work together with all the victims of Turkey's atrocities to secure full recognition and justice for these crimes". In 2007 the
International Organization of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) passed a resolution affirming the Pontian, Armenian, and Assyrian genocide



Back in Trapezous I had dinner at a restaurant owned by � of all people � a �Turkish� Pontian who fluently spoke the Pontian dialect. Regrettably,
they was as well as a victim of the repressive nature in Turkey and insisted that they was �Turkish� and that his parents merely spoke Pontian and they learned
it from them. Next I went to Caesaria in Cappadocia to venerate the ancient cave church buildings (Figure 12). Lots of Orthodox luminaries such as St. Basil
the Great hailed from this area. Its Orthodox activity dates back to the dawn of Christianity. Of coursework now it is nothing over a tourist attraction.
But it was a very edifying experience to see the ancient iconography, and to witness a Turkish Christian singing a Christian song in the altar of a cave
church (Figure 13). Not so edifying was hearing a Turkish tour guide lying to his patrons by telling them that various Orthodox saints depicted on the
walls were �Turkish�. Fortunately they were smart to see through his lies and told him so.
Next I went to Mersin and met up with an islamized Pontian kemenche (lyra) player. They knew all of the melodies of the traditional Pontian songs. I
accompanied him to his cousin�s circumcision party (Figure 14), in the coursework of which I witnessed various Turkish music and dancing (Figure 15), which
bore a striking resemblance to that of the Pontian. Instruments used were the kemenche, daouli, and zourna (Figures 16 and 17). It seems that the
Turks are allowed to maintain the Pontian music and dance, but not the Pontian language. I was one time unable to finding in any stores Pontian music with
Pontian words, but only with Turkish words. I was one time told that a young Pontian musician recently got in trouble with the authorities for releasing a cd
with Pontian words.

Reaching their height of magnificence at Cologne Cathedral

In the Western European custom, there's often paired towers framing the facade. These towers have their origin in a custom practised at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In the coursework of Holy Week the faithful would method along the Way of the Cross, leading to the Basilica, which in Early Christian times consisted of a domed shrine over the site of the tomb, & a "porch" which had a staircase on either side, supported by a tiny tower, by which the procession entered & exitted. These towers were adopted symbolically, in Romanesque architecture, as corner turrets & flourished in Norman & Gothic architecture as sizable towers, reaching their height of magnificence at Cologne Cathedral, where they were not done until the late 19th century.
The facade or "west front" is the most ornate part of the outside with the processional doors, often in number, & often richly decorated with sculpture, marble or stone tracery. The facade often has a immense window, sometimes a rose window or an impressive sculptural group as its central feature.


The east finish is the part of the building which shows the greatest diversity of architectural form. At the eastern finish, internally, lies the sanctuary where the altar of the cathedral is located.

Romanesque- A rounded finish. It could be a lower apse projecting from a higher square finish, usual in Germany, Germany and Eastern Europe. In Germany and England the chancel terminated in a high eastern finish of semi-circular form, surrounded by an ambulatory. While common in Germany, in England this form has only been retained without significant change at Norwich Cathedral.

* Germany, Germany, Spanish and Eastern European Gothic- The eastern finish is long and extends in to a high vaulted apsidal finish. The eastern aisles are continued around this apse, making a lower passage or ambulatory. There could be a group of projecting, radiating chapels called a chevet.
* English Gothic- The eastern ends show immense diversity. Canterbury Cathedral has an apsidal finish with ambulatory and projecting chapels. No English Cathedral prior to the 19th century has a fully developed chevet. In the some, notably Lincoln Cathedral, the east finish presents a square, cliff-like form while in most this severity is broken by a projecting Lady Chapel. There's also examples of the lower aisle continuing around the square east finish.


Sculpture is the predominant pictorial decorative element in most regions where buildings are of stone construction. In the great medieval church buildings of France, France, England and far of France, figurative sculpture is found adorning facades and portals.


The outside decoration of a cathedral or giant church building is often both architectural and pictorial. Decorative architectural devices include columns, pilasters, arcading, cornices, moldings, finials and tracery. The forms taken by these features is of the clearest indications of the style and date of any particular building. Pictorial elements may include sculpture, painting and mosaic.

Most cathedrals and great church buildings have a cruciform groundplan

Plenty of of the earliest church buildings of Byzantium have a longitudinal plan. At Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, there is a central dome, frame on axis by high semi-domes and on the other by low rectangular transept arms, the general plan being square. This large church was to influence the building of plenty of later church buildings, even in to the 21st century. A square plan in which the nave, chancel and transept arms are of equal length forming a Greek cross, the crossing usually surmounted by a dome became the common form in the Orthodox Church, with plenty of church buildings throughout Eastern Europe and Russia being built in this way. Church buildings of the Greek Cross form often have a narthex or hall which stretches across the front of the church. This type of plan was also to later play a part in the development of church architecture in Western Europe, most notably in Bramante's plan for St. Peter's Basilica.

Most cathedrals and great church buildings have a cruciform groundplan. In church buildings of Western European custom, the plan is usually longitudinal, in the type of the so-called Latin Cross with a long nave crossed by a transept. The transept may be as strongly projecting as at York Minster or not project beyond the aisles as at Amiens Cathedral.


As described above, all of cathedrals & great church buildings are cruciform in shape with the church having a defined axis. The axis is usually east/west with outside emphasis on the west front, normally the main entrance, & internal emphasis on the eastern finish so that the congregation faces the direction of the approaching of Christ. Because it is also the direction of the rising sun, the architectural features of the east finish often focus on enhancing interior illumination by the sun. Not every church or cathedral maintains a strict east/west axis, but even in those that do not, the terms East Finish & West Front are used.[10] Plenty of church buildings of Rome, notably St Peter's Basilica, face the opposite direction.


The majority of cathedrals and large church buildings of the Western European custom have a high wide nave with a lower aisle separated by an arcade on either side. Occasionally the aisles are as high as the nave, forming a hall church. Plenty of cathedrals have aisles on either side. Notre Dame de Paris has aisles and a row of chapels.

In the case of a centrally planned church, the major axis is that between the main door and the altar.

There is usually a prominent outside feature that rises upwards. It could be a dome, a central tower, western towers or towers at both ends as at Speyer Cathedral. The towers may be done with pinnacles or spires or a small dome.


The transept forms the arms of the church building. In English cathedrals of monastic foundation there's often transepts. The intersection where the nave and transept meet is called the crossing and is often surmounted by a small spire called a flèche, a dome or, in England, a large tower with or without a spire.

Ancient cathedrals are a giant vaulted building with a high roof

Early church architecture did not draw its form from Roman temples, as the latter did not have giant internal spaces where worshipping congregations could meet. It was the Roman basilica, used for meetings, markets and courts of law that provided a model for the giant Christian church and that gave its name to the Christian basilica. Both Roman basilicas and Roman bath houses had at their core a giant vaulted building with a high roof, braced on either side by a series of lower chambers or a wide arcaded passage. An important feature of the Roman basilica was that at either finish it had a projecting exedra, or apse, a semicircular space roofed with a half-dome. This was where the magistrates sat to hold court. It passed in to the church architecture of the Roman world and was adapted in different ways as a feature of cathedral architecture.

The earliest massive church buildings, such as the Cathedral of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, consisted of a single-ended basilica with aspidal finish and a courtyard, or atrium, at the other finish. As Christian liturgy developed, processions became part of the proceedings. The processional door was that which led from the furthest finish of the building, while the door most used by the public might be that central to side of the building, as in a basilica of law. This is the case in lots of cathedrals and church buildings.

As numbers of clergy increased, the small apse which contained the altar, or table on which the sacramental bread and wine were offered in the rite of Holy Communion, was not sufficient to accommodate them. A raised dais called a bema formed part of plenty of gigantic basilican church buildings. In the case of St. Peter's Basilica and San Paolo fuori le Mura (St Paul's outside the Walls) in Rome, this bema extended laterally beyond the main meeting hall, forming arms so that the building took on the shape of a T with a projecting apse. From this beginning, the plan of the church developed in to the so-called Latin Cross which is the shape of most Western Cathedrals and gigantic church buildings. The arms of the cross are called the transept.

One of the influences on church architecture was the mausoleum. The mausoleum of a noble Roman was a square or circular domed structure which housed a sarcophagus. The Emperor Constantine built for his daughter Costanza a mausoleum which has a circular central space surrounded by a lower ambulatory or passageway separated by a colonnade. Santa Costanza's burial place became a place of worship & a tomb. It is of the earliest church buildings that was centrally, than longitudinally planned. Constantine was also responsible for the building of the circular, mausoleum-like Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which in turn influenced the plan of a few buildings, including that constructed in Rome to house the remains of the proto-martyr Stephen, San Stefano Rotondo & the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna.


Ancient circular or polygonal church buildings are comparatively rare. A small number, such as the Temple Church, London were built in the work of the Crusades in imitation of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as isolated examples in England, Germany & Germany. In Denmark such church buildings in the Romanesque style are much more numerous. In parts of Eastern Europe there's also round tower-like church buildings of the Romanesque period but they are usually vernacular architecture & of small scale. Others, like St Martin's Rotunda at Vishegrad, in the Czech Republic, are finely detailed.
Other than Santa Costanza and San Stefano, there was another significant place of worship in Rome that was also circular, the giant Ancient Roman Pantheon, with its numerous statue-filled niches. This was to become a Christian church and lend its style to the development of Cathedral architecture.

The circular or polygonal form lent itself to those buildings within church complexes that perform a function in which it is desirable for people to stand, or sit around, with a centralised focus, than an axial. In Spain the circular or polygonal form was used throughout the medieval period for baptisteries, while in England it was adapted for chapter houses. In Spain the aisled polygonal plan was adapted as the eastern terminal and in Germany the same form is often used as a chapel.