Natiq Abulfat Alishov

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, Baku (alishov@rambler.ru)

Key words: Caucasian Albania, Movses Kaghankatvatsi, monophysitism, diophysitism, pedestal, a one-naved church, christianity, crosses, apses, altars.

The article describes the archaeological excavations carried out in the Christian monument Kilsali Tepe, which was built near the City of Gabala, one of the major cities of Caucasian Albania, in the territory of the village of Nic in Gabala region. A church built in the form of semi-dugouts, with horseshoe ledge of the altar was found here during the archaeological excavations. It was not oriented to the east but to the west.

An oval narthex constituting the front of the church was also detected during the excavations and the thickness of the bottom of its walls was set as 1.20 m. The dimensions of the narthex are 10 × 7 m.

The length of the walls in the northern part of the main building of the church is 7.50 m, in the southern part it is 7.35 m, in the eastern part it is 6.15 m, and in the western part it is 5.90 m. On the basis of ceramic samples, found in the interior of the church it can be assumed that the monument was built in the 7–8 cс. and continued functioning until the late middle Ages.