41 Buildings of Note
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The Architecture of Kilis The buildings in Kilis are predominantly of the traditional stone type. The pattern of the town is organic; inward-looking houses with courtyards and monumental buildings are nestled in a maze of narrow streets and stone walls. Cul-de-sacs (blind alleys) are a typical feature of the town's traditional street pattern. There are many monumental structures in Kilis that were built for religious, commercial or social purposes. All of these date from the Ottoman period apart from the Ulu Mosque and the Katrancı Mosque, which are from Mameluke times. Many buildings were put up especially in the time of Canpulat Bey, the governor of the "sancak" (district) of Kilis during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Lawgiver (also known as Suleiman the Magnificent). The buildings of Kilis are architecturally very similar to those of Aleppo. The most important reason for this is the nearness of the two cities, which meant that building materials came from similar sources and that sometimes even the same craftsmen were employed. The mosques in Kilis are built in the style of the early period and generally have a rectangular plan. In rectangular mosques there is usually a dome in front of the "mihrab" (prayer niche) which serves to highlight this feature. The main area of the mosque is usually roofed with vaults which are supported by buttresses. The mosques are generally plain, but have notable precision stonework utilizing stones of various colours. Minarets are mounted on a square base with bevelled corners. The gallery on most minarets is covered. The minaret is generally the most decorated part of the mosque. The area beneath the gallery is almost always decorated with "muqarnas" (a type of corbel employed as a decorative feature in traditional Islamic architecture) of finely-carved stone. Decoration in the form of ceramic plates or panels embedded in the stonework is also widely seen. The balustrades of the minaret galleries have elegant stonework finely carved in a woven, cage-like pattern. |
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