Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

28 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.
of Abu-'s-Sifain the comparatively late date of that
edifice makes its exceptional structure less note-
worthy. Kadisah Burbarah and Al 'Adra Harat-az-
Zuailah, though both very ancient buildings, include
part of a still earlier foundation ; and
I have no
doubt this tradition rightly accounts for the additional
altars possessed by those two churches. But
the concurrence of evidence is so overwhelming, and
the exceptions so few and doubtful, that the general
law of three altars is very clearly established. Even
in the tiny chapels adjoining the main churches, as
St. Banai at Mari Mina and Sitt Mariam above
Abu-'s-Sifain, it is extremely rare to find a single
altar : three always were built wherever space could
be devised for placing them side by side. Each altar
has its own dedication, but the central is invariably
the high altar : each stands detached in the middle
of its sanctuary. A continuous wooden screen divides
the three sanctuaries from the common choir, and
the central is parted from the side sanctuaries by walls,
with or without open passages of communication.
These chapels, of which the central corresponds to
the Greek bema, or presbytery, are generally, though
not invariably, raised one step above the level of the
choir, never more than two.
The sanctuary screen is always of solid opaque
woodwork, enriched with intricate arabesques or
geometrical patterns, and inlaid with superbly
carved crosses and stars of ivory. Each chapel
has its own low round-arched doorway, fitted with
double doors, and over each door is a Coptic or
Arabic text inlaid in ivory letters. In one or two
of the older churches, as Abu Sargah and Al 'Adra
Harat-az-Zuailah, the screen of the haikal, instead