Digital documentation of a Byzantine rock-carved structure in Konya:Kiriakon Monastery, Sille

Digital documentation methods enable the acquisition of viable data to preserve cultural heritage and its accurate transferto future generations. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) equipment are technical tools that haveessential functions in the three-dimensional (3D) modeling of structures of historical importance. In the geographic referencing andvisualization of historical structures with their surroundings, UAVs are often used, and for the visualization of the interior spaces ofstructures as a whole, TLS is popular. The Kiriakon Monastery, a rock-carved, cross-in-square, four-supports simple provincial typeof church, and several different structures around it within the borders of Sille in Konya Province are investigated in this study. Asone of the essential rock-carved monasteries in the Lycaonia region, the Kiriakon Monastery, which was designed around a courtyardand features spaces carved into the rock, is one of the most important Middle Byzantine period structures that have survived to thepresent day in Sille. Although both time and external factors have damaged the church section of the monastery, it reveals the richnessof Byzantine period rock-carved church decoration designs with rich relief decorations. The Kiriakon Monastery, which is beingincreasingly damaged with time, does not have smooth geometric surfaces and consists of rock-carved spaces, and so documentationstudies cannot be performed reliably with classical measurement methods. Instead, the Kiriakon Monastery can be evaluated as animportant part of the historical cultural heritage of Anatolia, mainly containing rock-carved spaces from the Byzantine period, throughdocumentation based on measurements obtained with the help of technological methods that are subsequently transferred to a digitalenvironment. In this study, the digital documentation of Sille’s Kiriakon Monastery was georeferenced using UAV technology. Interior3D models of the structure were created from TLS data and then integrated with the interior and exterior surface data.