vaults on
oblong compartments, while the passage or narthex under the western
gallery has a barrel vault.

The chambers at the north-eastern and south-eastern angles of the cross
are thrown into the side chapels, which thus consist of two bays covered
with cross-groined vaults. Communication between the chapels and the
bema was maintained by passages opening in the ordinary fashion into the
eastern bays.

In the thickness of each of the eastern dome piers, and at a short
distance above the floor, is a small chamber. The chamber in the
north-eastern pier is lighted by a small opening looking southwards, and
was reached by a door in the east side of the passage leading from the
bema to the north-eastern chapel. The door has been walled up, and the
chamber is consequently inaccessible. The chamber in the south-eastern
pier is lighted by a window looking northwards, and has a door in the
east side of the passage from the bema to the south-eastern chapel.

Over the door is a Turkish inscription[282] in gilt letters to this
effect, 'Tomb of the Apostles, disciples of Jesus. Peace to him.' The
chamber is reached by a short spiral stairway of nine stone steps, and
contains a small marble tomb, which is covered with shawls, and has a
turban around its headstone. On a bracket in the wall is a lamp ready to
be lighted in honour of the deceased. The roof of the chamber is
perforated by an opening that runs into the floor at the east end of the
southern gallery, and over the opening is an iron grating.

[Illustration: FIG. 54.--S. THEODOSIA. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING WEST.
(From a Photograph.)]

Access to the galleries is gained by means of a staircase in the
northern bay of the passage under the western gallery. For some distance
from the floor of the church the staircase has wooden steps, but from
the first landing, where a door in the northern wall stands on a level
with the ground outside the church, stone steps are employed for the
remainder of the way up. The wooden steps are Turkish, but may replace
Byzantine steps of the same material. The stone steps are Byzantine, and
could be reached directly from outside the church through the door
situated beside the landing from which they start. Probably in Byzantine
days the stone staircase could not be reached from the floor of the
church, and furnished the only means of access to the galleries.

The galleries are covered by the barrel vaults of the cross arms. At the
east e