632 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 
walls at small distances from each other, and all richly sculp¬ 
tured with crosses, fret-work, and various legends in the old 
Armenian character. A door leads from the largest of these 
chapels into a third, hewn entirely out of the solid rock of the 
mountain. The roof is hollowed in the form of a dome, and 
lighted by a circular aperture from above. All the interior of 
this subterraneous chapel is carved in pilasters, connecting 
arches, crosses, and wreathing ornaments. The height, from the 
ground to the top of the dome, is about thirty feet, and its 
length and breadth a square of seventeen feet; but it possesses 
an additional space of eight feet in the form of a recess divided 
by two arches, beneath the floor of which are disposed several 
low vaulted graves, filled with human bones. The sides of this 
little rocky chapelage, like the walls of the greater, are covered 
with carved crosses, legends, and flower-like ornaments. Just 
above the two arches, a very singular piece of sculpture presents 
itself; the head of a goat of a prodigious size, holding in its 
mouth a ring, to which is attached the ropes or chains that 
secure two lions: beneath the beasts, an eagle appears with open 
wings, having in his talons a lamb. The whole, probably, a 
hieroglyphic of the vicissitudes of Christianity since its establish¬ 
ment in Armenia; and in no country, perhaps, have its followers 
undergone more calamitous changes. 
A fourth chapel opens from this again into the depth of the 
rock, excavated in the same way out of its bosom, domed and 
pillared. Its style is superior to the other; and bears the ap¬ 
pearance of having been left unfinished, many red lines being- 
drawn on the smooth stone, as if intended to mark where pilas¬ 
ters, arches, and fretwork were yet to be formed. In this 
sanctum sanctorum, a large altar is hewn, standing within a 
