of Chalke, is occupied by an oblong edifice with an arched wooden roof,[1] the basilica of St. Sophia,[2] commonly called the Great Church. The entrance faces the east,[3] and leads from a cloistered forecourt to a narrow hall, named the narthex, which extends across the whole width of the church. The interior consists of a wide nave separated from lateral aisles by rows of Corinthian columns, which support a gallery on each side. At the end of the nave stands the pulpit or ambo,[4] approached by a double flight of steps, one on each side. Behind the ambo the body of the church is divided from the Bema or chancel by a lofty carved screen, decorated with figures of sacred personages, called later the Iconostasis or image-stand. Three doors in the Iconostasis lead to the Bema, which contains the altar,[5] a table of costly construction enriched with gold and gems, and covered by a large and handsome ciborium. The edifice is terminated by an apse furnished with an elevated seat, which forms the
- [Footnote: the date under consideration the historical reader would soon tire of an
exposition setting forth the order and decoration of a hundred chambers.]), the [Greek: Logos], the Word, i.e., Christ; Procopius, De Bel. Vand., i, 6, etc.], to ascend, not, as some imagine, from the double approach; Reiske, Const. Porph., ii, p. 112; Letheby and S., op. cit., p. 53.]
- ↑ Codin., pp. 16, 130.
- ↑ This name is understood to refer, not to a female saint, but to the Holy Wisdom ([Greek: Hê Hagia Sophia
- ↑ Letheby and Swainson give good reasons for supposing that this early church opened to the east; St. Sophia, etc., Lond., 1894, p. 17. It was burnt in the time of Chrysostom, but apparently repaired without alteration of design.
- ↑ Ambo, plainly from [Greek: anabainô
- ↑ The gift of Pulcheria, presented as a token of the perpetual virginity to which she devoted herself and her sisters; Sozomen, ix, 1; Glycas, iv, p. 495. The Emperor used to sit in the Bema, but St. Ambrose vindicated its sanctity to the priestly caste by expelling Theodosius I; Sozomen, vii, 25, etc.
