volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

242 Visit to the Monastery 0/ Rabban Hormzzd.
the monastery. I was delighted with the idea of this
and accepted the invitation gratefully. We set out in
the early afternoon and soon after we left the village
the path began to rise quickly, and we found ourselves
riding up a track which had been made by a mountain
stream. In places the monks had cut a road through
the rock, and many parts of it were paved with
rough cobbles. We ascended a steep bit of path,
fortunately short, and then reached the platform on
which the monastery stands. Strictly speaking, the
building is not a monastery of the ordinary type, with
cells, etc., for it consists of two old churches, one above
the other, and two or three modern chapels. The rocky
defile by which we ascended opens out, as Rich rightly
said,^ into a kind of amphitheatre, and the churches
stand on a deep ledge almost in the centre of it. The
scenery is very grand and awe-inspiring. In ancient
days the monks lived in a series of cells hewn out of
the sides of the amphitheatre, and only came down to the
church on Sundays and days of festival to receive the
Sacrament. In fact, Rabban Hormizd was a Laura
and not a monastery ; the lay brethren lived close to
the church, and the " old men " and anchorites lived
in the cells in the rocky amphitheatre. When we
mounted the platform on which the church stands we
were most kindly received by Kuss Yuhannis, who had
spread out carpets and cushions for us to rest upon,
and we sat down and enjoyed the marvellous scene
before us. We sent the horses back to Al-K6sh, and
as the Prior insisted on it, our supply of provisions with
them ; I had misgivings about parting from our food,
but Nimrud said that the Prior would be sorely hurt
if I attempted to eat my own food whilst I was his
guest.
After a short rest the Prior took me to see the
churches and chapels and allotted me my " cell." The
great church is a rectangular building with no windows,
and light is only admitted into it from the upper church
' Narrative, ii, p. 90 ff.