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The "Grot Monastery of Hasun", Silvan district, Diyarbakır province
1865: “..... Close to Miafarkeyn*, in a steep mountain-gourge, are the remains of the grot monastery of Hasoon, a corruption for Hoseea. The grots are dug out of a steep and nearly inaccesible rock, that in consequence looks at a distance more like a rabbit-burrow than the former abode of men. Near them is an old church, which according to an inscription inside it, was repaired A.D. 861. The caves are now inhabited by a lawless band of Kurds, the scourge of the neighbourhood; and in my rambles through them, I saw many vestiges of the results of their predatory excursions”
(J.G. Taylor, ‘Travels in Kurdistan, with notices of the sources of the Eastern and Western Tigris, and ancient ruins in their neighbourhood’, in: Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 35 (1865) pp.21-58)
*= Silvan (Diyarbakır province)
