nas_)--a strong fortress on a rugged spur of Mt. Kadmus, 3 m. to
the south, which became a place of importance during the wars between
the Byzantines and Turks, and was the birthplace of the historian,
Nicetas Khoniates. The worship of angels alluded to by St Paul (Col. ii.
18), and condemned in the 4th century by a council at Laodicea,
reappears in the later worship of St Michael, in whose honour a
celebrated church, destroyed by the Seljuks in the 12th century, was
built on the right bank of the Lycus.

See Sir W. M. Ramsay, _Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia_, vol. i.

COLOSSAL CAVERN, a cave in Kentucky, U.S.A., the main entrance of which
is at the foot of a steep hill beyond Eden Valley, and 1-1/2 m. from
Mammoth Cave. It is connected with what has long been known as the Bed
Quilt Cave. Several entrances found by local explorers were rough and
difficult. They were closed when the property was bought in 1896 by the
Louisville & Nashville railway and a new approach made as indicated on
the accompanying map. From the surface to the floor is 240 ft.; under
Chester Sandstone and in the St Louis Limestone. Fossil corals fix the
geological age of the rock. The temperature is uniformly 54 deg. Fahr.,
and the atmosphere is optically and chemically pure. Lovely
incrustations alternate with queer and grotesque figures. There are
exquisite gypsum rosettes and intricately involved helictites.

[Illustration: map of Colossal Cavern.]

Tremendous forces have been at work, suggesting earthquakes and
eruptions; but really all is due to the chemical and mechanical action
of water. The so-called "Ruins of Carthage" fill a hall 400 ft. long by
100 ft. wide and 30 ft. high, whose flat roof is a vast homogeneous
limestone block. Isolated detached blocks measure from 50 to 100 ft. in
length. Edgar Vaughan and W. L. Marshall, civil engineers, surveyed
every part of the cave. Vaughan's Dome is 40 ft. wide, 300 ft. long, and
79 ft. high. Numerous other domes exist, and many deep pits. The
grandest place of all is the Colossal Dome, which used to be entered
only from the apex by windlass and a rope reaching 135 ft. to the floor.
This is now used only for illumination by raising and lowering a
fire-basket. The present entrance is by a gateway buttressed by
alabaster shafts, one of which, 75 ft. high, is named Henry Clay's
Monument. The dome walls arise in a series of richly tinted rings, each
8 or 10 ft. thick, and each fringed by s