Eastern view of the INTERIOR of ST SOPHIA, looking towards the Altar-place.

CHAP. XV.

interior.

additions to this Work, he has annexed its faithful portraiture, represented, in two points of perspective, by an early traveller; whose work, before cited', is become so rare, that the only copies of the original designs likely to be met with, are contained in the cumbersome and costly folios of Anselm Banduri, which are also by no means common. The FIRST Plate exhibits the Interior of St. Sophia, viewed Views of its towards the place where the high altar originally stood; the SECOND, the interior of the same building, as it appears to a person who is standing beneath the dome', and viewing the entrance; shewing, through the middle door of the Pylæum, the descent by a flight of steps into the body of the mosque. We shall accompany these views with an historical description, corresponding with ciphers upon the plates, principally derived from the same work.

First View of the Interior of St. Sophia; taken from the
Entrance, looking towards the Altar-place.

1. The Dome of St. Sophia, yet covered with Mosaic figures, as
marked in the design.

2. Place

(5) Relation Nouvelle d'un Voyage de Constantinople, presentée au Roy, par Grelot. à Paris, 16080- See the remarkable list of attestations prefixed to the work, by celebrated travellers, testifying the accuracy of Grelot's designs.

(6) Imperium Orientale, Anselmi Bandurii; sive Antiquitates Constantinopolitanæ, tom. II. p. 744. et seq. Paris, 1711.

(7) The flatness of this dome constitutes all that is marvellous in the architecture of the building. It equals 105 feet in diameter, and only 18 in depth; although elevated 165 feet above the pavement of the mosque. The diameter of the Dome of St. Peter's at Rome, equals 133 feet, and that of St. Paul's in London, 100 feet.

CHAP. XV.

2. Place where the Altar stood.

3. Mirabe, or Maharab; a niche where the Korân is kept.

4. The Suggestum, to which the Mufti ascends for delivering prayer at the Beiram, and other grand festivals.

5. Oratory, whither the Grand Signior retires to pray.

6. Gallery by which he enters the mosque.

7. Three small Tribunes for the choristers.

8. Marble Béma, in which the ordinary preachers sit to deliver sermons every Tuesday and Friday. Behind the Béma, and also opposite to it, are four granite columns (monolithal) forty feet high.

9. Windows of the mosque.

10. Lower Gallery, antiently the Gynæcéum for the women. The part below the columns is ornamented with a plexus of jasper, porphyry, and mother of pearl.

11. Balustrades, or Balconies, seen above and below, all round the building.

12. Mouth of a Well, whence water is drawn for the use of the devotees (heated by their devotional ceremonies) from a cistern below the mosque.

The pavement of St. Sophia is entirely of marble, worked in different ornamental compartments; but it is covered by mats, and by several large carpets.

Second View of the Interior of St. Sophia; taken beneath

the Dome, looking towards the Entrance.

1. The Pylæum, or place of Entrance; consisting of three doors, whereof the principal leads to the centre of the mosque. Over this door, in the vestibule, are representations of the Messiah, the Virgin, and St. John the Baptist, with an Emperor prostrate at their feet.

2. 2. Marble

Published Jan 1.1816, by T. Cadell & W. Davies, Strand, London.