Stanoz (also found under the names "Stanos," "Stanoz," "Istanos," "Istanoz," "Opida," "Zir," Yenikent") was a village located 30 kilometers west of Angora. It had around eight hundred houses and was populated by five to six thousand souls, of whom a quarter formed the Armenian Protestant community and the rest the Armenian Gregorian community.

The village stretched out in a valley over seven kilometers long. On the right bank of the river and for a length of more than one kilometer, the houses lined up sometimes in one to two rows, and sometimes in five to six rows.

The valley was rugged with a few zigzag gorges of limited length.

Outside the city, on the terraced slopes, stretched orchards with delicious and succulent fruits. As for the vines, they ran alongside the lower part of the river for more than five kilometers and produced a thousand and one kinds of grapes.

The second half of the town, still along the river's course, suddenly narrowed. Behind the houses rose gigantic rocks in which chambers were hollowed out, dating back, it is said, to the time of the Romans or even the Phrygians.