612 
TOMB OF THE VIRGIN. 
of climbing, interwoven leaves, the whole of which is enclosed 
by a Saracenic arch; exhibiting altogether a rich specimen of 
this style of Armenian architecture, bearing date, probably, 
about the middle of the eleventh or twelfth century. An old 
peasant, our guide, (who, on our chancing to meet him at the 
bridge, had offered to show us the ruins,) said, this was the 
burial-place of a female saint, whose name was no longer known, 
but tradition always called it the Tomb of the Virgin. 
Armenia had been long trampled under foot by the Turks, 
when Shah Abbas wrested the wealth of Julfa, and the industry 
of its opulent inhabitants also, from the treasure-house of his 
Ottoman rival. It was about the year 1603 when this transac- 
