Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

CH. i.] General Struct^lre. 25
in the chief basilican churches the choir is raised
two steps above the nave and screened by latticework.
To this latter class however there are two
singular exceptions,
Al Mu'allakah and Kadisah
Burbarah, in which choir and nave are at one continuous
level, and the screens that parted the two
have been removed so that an unbroken ;
view may
be had from the west to the sanctuary. At Abu-'s-
Sifain, the choir-screen is solid and pierced by a
small square sliding-door or window on either side :
the entrance closes by folding-doors, across which
hung in olden times a curtain. At Abu-'s-Sifain,
Abu Sargah, and Al Adra Harat-az-Zuailah the
screen recedes about three feet eastward from the
edge of the choir platform, leaving in the nave
a kind of stone bench. This probably corresponds
to the solea of the Greek Church, where candidates
for ordination stood till the Cherubic Hymn was
ended, when they were led into the sanctuary. It
should be remarked that there is a solea before
the sanctuary-screen, at Al Mu'allakah, though
there is no choir now otherwise distinguished than
by the lecterns. It is doubtful whether, in the
very earliest times, the choir was separated from
the nave or had any distinct existence, as the first
clear mention of it seems to be in the seventh
century. Later it was marked off from the nave
by a low railing something like the wall or balustrade
common in early Italian basilicas, with this
difference in the Coptic churches, that the choir-
railing always extended across the whole building
instead of returning along the wings or aisles east-
ward. There was a front railing, in fact, but no
side railings. The reason for this difference of