Kish Church (Azerbaijani: Kis kils?si), also known by different sources as the Church of Saint Elishe (Azerbaijani: Müq?dd?s Yelisey kils?si , Armenian: ??? ????? ???????) or Church of the Holy Mother of God (Armenian: ????? ?????????? ???? ???), is an inactive Caucasian Albanian church from the 12th or 13th century located in the village of Kis about 5 km north of Shaki, Azerbaijan. It functioned at different times as the Caucasian Albanian Apostolic Church, the Chalcedonian Church within the Georgian Orthodox Church and later as the Armenian Apostolic Church. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayAccording to the 7th century Armenian historian Movses Kaghankatvatsi, in the 1st century AD, Saint Elisha, disciple of Thaddeus from Edessa, arrived at a place called Gis (???), where he built a church and recited a liturgy. The church became the “spiritual center and place of enlightenment of the peoples of the East”. While returning from Gis, Saint Elisha was killed near the pagan altar in the small valley of Zerguni by unknown people. According to Armenian architectural historian[13] Samvel Karapetian, the geographical position of Kish does not seem to correspond to that described by Kaghankatvatsi. . Karapetian believes he identified Gis as the village of Bomen/Bum, located 60 km southeast of Kish,[4] in the Gabala district. According to a Georgian historiographer, in the 10th century the population of Kish converted to the Georgian Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Church. Kish Church was transformed into the residence of a Georgian bishop, functioning until the 17th century. At the time Russia took possession of the region, the village of Kish had an Udi population. According to Robert H. Hewsen, the Udi language appeared to have been widespread north of the Koura River until the 19th century, and the Armenian population appeared to be of relatively recent arrival. While many Armenians undoubtedly settled there fleeing the Turkish-Mongol invasions, many others entered the region with the arrival of the Russians at the beginning of the 19th century.[16]In 1836, the Albanian Church, along with all active churches in that area that were non-Georgian or Russian, was incorporated into the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the Kish church was re-founded in the 1860s and became a place of pilgrimage due to the belief that she was associated with Elishe (Yegishe).Objects found on the site of the Armenian Apostolic Church. church dating from the end of 4000 BC and the beginning of 3000 BC. Between 2000 and 2003, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded a joint project between the Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction and the Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise for archaeological research and restoration of the Kish Church. Dr. Vilayat Karimov of the Baku Institute of Archeology and Ethnography served as director of the excavations and the archaeological advisor of the project was J. Bjørnar Storfjell. Radiocarbon analysis of various objects found at the site showed that the cult site discovered beneath the church's altar dates from around 3000 BC, while the construction of the existing church dates from around 12th century (990-1160 AD).The existing church The building cannot be dated to the time of Saint Elisha, but archaeological evidence demonstrates that the church is located on an ancient cult site. It is very unlikely that Saint Elisha built a church in Kish in the modern sense of the term. Even if the person existed, it seems likely that they built only the altar or used an existing pagan worship structure. Bjørnar Storfjell has stated that there is clear evidence that this church was built as a church diophysitis. THE