CAVES OF ST. GREGORY. 
633 
recess on elevated ground, and approached by a flight of steps. 
All this part, where finished, was profusely covered with the 
usual sacred emblems, Armenian characters, &c.: and as every 
place and detail seemed to have been dug and chiselled by the 
hand of man, I could not but wonder at the indefatigable labour 
and patience with which they had been executed. 
On repassing all these chapels, and regaining the entrance, we 
proceeded a little onward by the rocky wall on the outside of 
the church ; and then ascended the cliff* a short way, in the side 
of which we found a door, leading into another excavated holy 
place, domed like the former, but much more spacious. This 
measured a square of thirty-five feet, divided by four massy 
columns, and received light from above by a large round aper¬ 
ture in the dome. The natives who went over the scene with 
me, spoke confidently of the manner in which the excavations 
had been made; and described the process as having been 
begun with the opening of the round holes at the top of the 
rock; whence the workmen dug downwards, till the whole 
assumed the shape in which we saw it; a method, I think, very 
probable. Above this fifth chapel, ranges of small cells also are 
cut in the side of the cliff, apparently for the residence of 
monks ; and on each side of the gate, leading out of the great 
church court into the valley, two very large rooms appear. 
Beyond the walls, and in various parts of the rocky acclivities, 
huge natural caverns exist, besides other excavations, with door¬ 
ways, and openings for admitting light; but the paths to them 
were now too broken and precipitous to allow a possibility of 
our ascending. My guides told me that some of these places 
had been the stationary habitations of certain devout hermits; 
while others were the labour of holy pilgrims, who, for shorter 
4 M 
VOL. II. 
