BSY_FB_05_p.09insert1

E.A.W Budge The Book of Governors, London 1893 Vol. I.
pp L - LII

Each of the three churches of Bêth 'Abhê must have
had a flat roof, above which rose either rectangular
projections or domes, and each must have been lighted
from windows cut high up in the walls.

As no plans or detailed descriptions of these churches have
come down to us we are obliged to have recourse to the
allusions to the various parts of them scattered through the work of
Thomas of Margâ, and to the descriptions of churches of
monasteries now standing (Badger, The Historians vol. I,
p. 94 [...] Petermann, Reisen II, 317) to obtain an idea of their
internal divisions and arrangements. The church of a
monastery was oriented to the east, and contained three main
divisions in its longitudinal base. At the extreme east end
stood the altar ([ ] or [ ], and upon the altar stood a cross),
raised upon a step or steps, which was approached from the
[another language] = βήμά - κογχή , this part of the church was kept
closed by means of the gates of the κογχή [...], and
the vail [?] βήμά = velum. Strictly speaking the [...]
(κογχή) was the circular projection from the east wall of
the church in which the altar stood, and the [...] (βήμά) was
the space which was raised above the rest of the floor of the church to
the height of three steps and by which the [...] (κογχή) was
approached; we may see, however, that the word [...] (κογχή)