imes
octagonal, or at least there were eight piers supporting the dome instead
of four, and the "nave" and "transepts" were narrower in proportion. If we
draw a square and divide each side into three so that the middle parts are
greater than the others, and then divide the area into nine from these
points, we approximate to the typical setting out of a plan of this time.
Now add three apses on the east side opening from the three divisions, and
opposite to the west put a narrow entrance porch running right across the
front. Still in front put a square court. The court is the _atrium_ and
usually has a fountain in the middle under a canopy resting on pillars. The
entrance porch is the _narthex_. The central area covered by the dome is
the _solea_, the place for the choir of singers. Here also stood the
_ambo_. Across the eastern side of the central square was a screen which
divided off the _bema_, where the altar was situated, from the body of the
church; this screen, bearing images, is the _iconastasis_. The altar was
protected by a canopy or _ciborium_ resting on pillars. Rows of rising
seats around the curve of the apse with the patriarch's throne at the
middle eastern point formed the _synthronon_. The two smaller compartments
and apses at the sides of the bema were sacristies, the _diaconicon_ and
_prothesis_. The continuous influence from the East is strangely shown in
the fashion of decorating external brick walls of churches built about the
12th century, in which bricks roughly carved into form are set up so as to
make bands of ornamentation which it is quite clear are imitated from Cufic
writing. This fashion was associated with the disposition of the exterior
brick and stone work generally into many varieties of pattern, zig-zags,
key-patterns, &c.; and, as similar decoration is found in many Persian
buildings, it is probable that this custom also was derived from the East.
The domes and vaults to the exterior were covered with lead or with tiling
of the Roman variety. The window and door frames were of marble. The
interior surfaces were adorned all over by mosaics or paintings in the
higher parts of the edifice, and below with incrustations of marble slabs,
which were frequently of very beautiful varieties, and disposed so that,
although in one surface, the colouring formed a series of large panels. The
choicer marbles were opened out so that the two surfaces produced by the
division formed a symmetrical pattern