Almost all the Kizil caves are either rectangular or square in plan and have front and back chambers. The front chamber usually has a niche on the cliff side and a statue inside the niche. The inner chamber has a passageway to the side, and to the rear of the passage way is either an arched or a squared ceiling. Some of the rectangular caves have central pillars and arched ceilings. Most of the front chambers of the caves are collapsed, and only their inner chambers remain intact. Reconstruction of an entrance wall often involves either the front or the back wall of the front chamber. Accurate reconstruction of these areas is advantageous for the long-term protection of the caves, and also for future research on them. The stability and safety of the cave interiors also obviously depend on proper restoration of these areas.
The Kizil work section 1 divides naturally into three major groups: Caves 2-6, 7-17, and 27-29. Different techniques were used to repair the entrance walls in these three groups. Caves 2-6, which served as the monks' living chambers, had very thin roof strata. Most of the entrance walls had been temporarily restored using mud bricks that did not have any reinforcing effect and resulted in changes of configuration.
The front chambers and parts of the inner chambers of some caves no longer exist. For example, the inner chamber of Cave 3 was half collapsed and its entrance wall had been restored. In the course of the current reinforcement, the entrance wall was removed and cleaned, exposing the base of the walls in the inner chamber. The cave was then restored with reinforced concrete mortar to its original shape and style. A small area of original gypsum floor remaining in the front chamber was used as a basis for the restoration of the front chamber. However, there was no information about the depth of this chamber or the shape of the roof. For this reason, a structure was built outside the entrance wall to indicate that there had originally been an outer chamber. Other caves were restored in the same manner. To avoid a rigid and dull appearance, the inside of the entrance wall was made smooth and perpendicular to the ground surface,
And the outside surface of the entrance wall was made to resemble the natural cliff.
Caves 7-17 are, for the most part, decorated with exquisite murals and have arched ceilings and central supports. All the front chambers of this group had collapsed. However, the inner chambers are well preserved. The cave entrance walls support the roof and have an external frame structure that indicates the previous existence of a front chamber.
Caves 10-17 are distributed vertically in two levels. When the upper-level caves were reinforced, the entrance walls had to be supported on bedrock, and it was thus necessary for the walls to penetrate through the caves at the lower level. In the reconstruction, a reinforced concrete pillar-beam was used. The intermediate walls of the upper caves were built using hidden pillars, either seated on the bedrock at the lower level or directly positioned on the horizontal beams at the tops of the entrance walls of the lower-level caves. A walkway between the levels has preserved the layered pattern. Cave 7 is on the westernmost end of this group and is very close to the area threatened by the gullies. Its front chamber had collapsed in the past, and the extant eastern half of the inner chamber was on the verge of collapse due to a gully on its western side. In the process of repairing this cave, loose dirt was first removed and a hole was dug into the bedrock. The floor was then restored with reinforced concrete mortar to its original level. The style and the size of the cave were reconstructed based on estimates made from the remains of the cave. After this work, the inner chamber of Cave 7 was completely protected.
World History
