XXXV SACRIFICIAL ALTARS 409 



On the other hand, there are almost equally cogent 

 grounds for believing that the causeway, staircase, and 

 platform are of far more ancient origin than the church 

 which has been built upon the latter, or even the first 

 Christian edifice that occupied the spot. For before 

 turning back to look at the whole structure, it was at 

 once apparent that the church does not stand in the 

 middle of the platform ; nor does its chief entrance 

 correspond exactly to the middle of the great staircase, 

 but lies somewhat more to the south. Moreover, the 

 terrace is throughout constructed of neatly squared 

 stones, whereas the church, as mentioned above, is 

 built mainly of rough-hewn blocks. I should be inclined 

 to conjecture that the obelisks belong to the oldest, 

 purely Ethiopian period — possibly influenced by Egyptian 

 models — while the staircase and terrace, as well as the 

 inscribed slabs and sacrificial altars, are the work of a 

 later Graeco - Ethiopian dynasty, when probably the 

 platform was occupied by a temple, to which the road, 

 lined with altars and statues of the gods, provided a 

 magnificent approach. 



We left the inner enclosure by the gate-house, in the 

 corners of which live many beggars and fugitives from 

 justice. Immediately outside this we came upon eleven 

 stone bases, or pedestals of peculiar build, lying almost 

 in a line and close to one another. Each consists of 

 a large slab, some nine feet square, and the less imperfect 

 ones have — as was probably the case with all the others 

 — a raised central block. At the four angles are four 

 solid stone cubes, in which square-cut holes are sunk : 

 in these stood pillars that once supported a stone canopy. 



