Honaz

Honaz lies beneath Mount Cadmus near the upper Lycus valley, southeast of the ancient city of Colossae. In Byzantine times it was known as Chonae and celebrated for a sanctuary of the Archangel Michael. A story told that the archangel saved the church by opening a cleft in the rock to divert a torrent, a miracle represented in Christian art.

Chonae stood on a route linking the Aegean with the Anatolian interior and suffered during the wars of the twelfth century. In 1148 troops of the Second Crusade were attacked in the mountains nearby. Later raids damaged the town and its famous church, which was plundered in 1192. The story of Michael's intervention survived the destruction, keeping Chonae in the memory of pilgrims and icon painters.