ome, placed on a
circular drum, is supported on four piers, and divided into eight
concave compartments, with windows in the alternate compartments. The
arms of the cross, the chambers at the angles, and the bema are all
covered with cross-groined vaults that spring, like those in the chapel
of the Pammakaristos (p. 151), from the vaulting level. The apsidal
chambers have dome vaults, a niche on the east recessed in an arch to
form the apse, and a niche both on the north and the south rising above
the vaulting string-course. In the lowest division of the south wall
stood originally a triple arcade with a door between the columns. The
arcade has been built up, but the moulded jambs and cornices of the
door, and the arch above it, now contracted into a window, still show on
the exterior, while the columns appear within the church. Above the
column string-course is a range of three windows, the central window
being larger than its companions; higher up in the gable is a single
light. The interior of the church has been much pulled about and cut
away. The narthex is in three bays, separated by strong transverse
arches, and terminates at either end in a high concave niche that shows
on the outside. The central bay has a dome vault; the other bays have
cross-groined vaults. The church had no gynecaeum, although Pulgher
indicates one in his plan. A striking feature of the exterior are the
large semicircular buttresses that show beyond the walls of the
church--six on the south side, one on either side of the entrance on the
west, and two on the east, supporting the apsidal chambers. In the last
case, however, where entire buttresses would have been at once too large
and too close together, the buttresses are only half semi-circles. The
apses project with three sides. The northern side of the church and the
roof are modern, for the building suffered severely in 1784 from
fire.[320] The church stands on a platform, built over a small cistern,
the roof of which is supported by four columns crowned by beautiful
capitals. Hence the Turkish name of the mosque, Bodroum, signifying a
subterranean hollow. Gyllius[321] is mistaken in associating this church
with the large underground cistern situated lower down the slope of
the hill close to the bath Kyzlar Aghassi Hamam.

[Illustration: PLATE LIV.
MYRELAION. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST.]

[Illustration: MYRELAION. THE SOUTH-WEST CROSS ANGLE.
_To face page 198._]

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