164 
THE BAMBEK. 
cathedral, and the other ancient churches of the province, was 
a sort of piazza or cloister, which surrounded the building on 
the outside. The arches of this highly convenient, but un¬ 
common appendage to a structure of the kind, were of the 
pointed order; but much less so, than in any species of the 
Gothic. This rather flattened form prevailed in the windows, 
doors, and throughout the body of the church, wherever it wasi 
necessary the arch shape should be introduced. The workman-- 
ship of the friezes, and other ornaments, was much inferior in 
taste, and execution, to that I had observed on the three stones 
of the old Armenian bridge. 
We quitted our quarters, at the usual travelling hour of the 
morning, with a clear sky, and six degrees of frost. Our track lay 
south-west, over the plain; turning our backs on the northern 
blast, which blew the keener, as it cut along by the snowy sides of 
the mountains; and also on the frightful precipices to the east, which 
overlooked the still deeper dell of rocks that formed the channel 
of the Bambek. After traversing the plain, for nearly six wersts, 
we began a gentle ascent, up a hill to the south; and, passing 
over its brow, descended, on the opposite side, by a narrow, 
uneven, but romantic path, towards the Bambek; which, by a 
turn or two of its winding waters, met us here on the south, 
though we had so recently left it in the east. Soon after we 
regained sight of the river, a new object augmented the pic¬ 
turesque of the scene ; some particularly fine ruins, monuments 
still of ancient piety, appearing on the summit of a high rock, 
which stood near the spot where the Lori river unites with the 
nobler Bambek. 
Descending towards the river, or rather to the edge of the 
steep moat of rocks, dug by nature’s self in the side of the 
