Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

8o Ancient Coptic Churches. [
C-H. m.
attend service in the nave. The men's section of
course lies eastward of the two ;
beyond is the and then the haikal.
choir,
The choir is only about eight feet long and the
same width as the nave, thirty
feet. Southward it
is walled off from a baptistery which lies at the end
of the aisle and may be entered by
choir ;
a door from the
northward a wing-wall, thrown out from the
main pier, half divides it from a low dark chamber
which forms a kind of choir to the northern aisle-
chapel. This chamber is really part and parcel of
the north aisle which, as was mentioned, is
from the church.
severed
The haikal is apsidal and has a very perfect
tribune. There were, I think, originally
two other
apses. The northern aisle-chapel is not rounded,
but the eastern wall may have been straightened
when the exterior chapels were added on. There
is, strangely enough, no southern aisle-chapel ; the
east wall of the aisle, against
which the font is
placed, aligns with the haikal-screen ; but there
must be a blocked chapel or space of some kind
behind it, because the triforium above projects
eastward beyond it and ends in an apse. It is
almost certain therefore that there was an apse
below on the ground floor ; and the south aisle,
like the north, terminated in a chapel.
The western wall shows no sign of having been
but it is said to have
pierced with three doorways :
been rebuilt probably in turbulent times, when it
was felt that a triple entrance seriously weakened
the defensive powers of the fabric.
The nave is covered with a pointed wooden roof,
of the kind known as a '
pair of principals.'
It has