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NEW PLANS FOR IRRIGATION 209
The great hall with four huge piers in the middle to support
the lofty central dome, the simple proportions, and the
massive stone walls, all combine to produce an impression
of stately dignity, carrying one’s thoughts back along many
centuries, during which the eyes of the Armenian people have
constantly turned to this sanctuary in sorrow and hope during
the vicissitudes of their strange destiny.
In shape the church is square, the length from west to east
being slightly longer than the breadth from north to south.
In the middle of each side, facing the four points of the
compass, is a semicircular apse (see the flgure opposite). In
the centre of the church the four piers mark another square.
The distance between them is about s*B metres, approximately
the same as the distance to the north and south walls and the
breadth of the apses. Upon the piers, joined at the top by
high horseshoe-shaped arches, rests the lofty dome, with
small supporting niches above the four corners of this inner
square.
According to Lynch’s measurements (op. eit., i, p. 267),
the inside length of the ground-plan of the church is 3 3 metres
from the farthest walls of the east and west apses, while
the corresponding measurement from north to south is 29-9
metres. The depth of an apse is 4-65 metres, consequently
the sides of the square hall of the church must be about 23-7
and 20-6 metres respectively.
The light falls from twelve windows in the dome ; there
are a few windows here and there in the walls also, but these
are so small that they do not give much light. The main
entrance is in the middle of the west apse. At the east end
of the choir is the large altar where the service is usually
condueted. But there is also an altar with a canopy over it
in the middle of the church—in the centre of the square
formed by the four large piers, on the spot where, in the sight
of St. Gregory, the Only Begotten struck the ground with
His golden hammer. This altar is used on great festivals.
The Katholikos has a throne by each side of the two northern
pillars to the right in front of each altar. Ordinarily he sits
on the uppermost throne at the east end ; but on great occa
sions he occupies the other. These thrones were gifts ; the
o
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