List of oldest church buildings
Asia

List of oldest church buildings

Section Title: Asia
Table Section Text: None

Building	Image	Location	Country	Oldest Part	Denomination	Notes

Monastery of Stoudios	-	Istanbul	Turkey	462	Greek Orthodox	No longer a functioning church, and was a mosque until it fell into ruin. As with many other archaeological sites in Turkey, plans to revert the ruins back into a mosque are underway.

Qalb Loze	-	Qalb Loze	Syria	5th century	Assyrian Church	Built in 460s, one of the best-preserved early Syrian churches, the first known with a wide basilica, where the columns that separate the aisles from the nave have been replaced with low piers and soaring arches that create the feeling of expanded space.

Church of Saint Simeon Stylites (Deir Semaan)	-	Aleppo	Syria	475	Greek Orthodox	Once a popular pilgrimage site, now in ruins, but walls still standing.

Bolnisi Sioni	-	Bolnisi	Georgia	479–493	Georgian Orthodox	The oldest extant church building in Georgia.

Turmanin Basilica	-	Turmanin	Syria	480	Early Church	Drawing reconstruction shown. Now in ruins, served a monastery and hospice.

Etchmiadzin Cathedral	-	Vagharshapat	Armenia	483	Armenian Apostolic	Built in 483 and heavily rebuilt in the following centuries. Still the main cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Mor Hananyo Monastery	-	Mardin	Turkey	493	Syriac Orthodox	Founded in 493 by Mor Shlemon on the site of a temple dedicated to the Assyrian sun god Shamash that was converted into a citadel by the Romans, then transformed into a monastery.

Dranda Cathedral	-	Dranda	Abkhazia/Georgia	c. 550–600	Georgian Orthodox	The oldest church building in Abkhazia, still functioning as a church.

Church of the Nativity	-	Bethlehem	West Bank	c. 565	Simultaneum	One of the oldest church buildings in the world which has continuously functioned as a church.

Jvari (monastery)	-	Mtskheta	Georgia	590–604	Georgian Orthodox	A World Heritage Site.

Sentence(s)

Bolnisi Sioni is the oldest extant church building in Georgia.

final_sentence: Bolnisi Sioni is the oldest extant church building in Georgia.