or executed in mosaic, instead of being carved, and time and whitewash have so obliterated these, that the remaining skeleton—it is little else—seems ruder and clumsier than might be expected. As will be seen from the annexed plan, the church is externally a polygon of sixteen sides, and is about 105 ft. in diameter; internally eight compound piers support a dome 47 ft. 6 in. in diameter. The height is almost exactly equal to the external diameter of the building. Internally this height is divided into four storeys; the two lower, running over the side-aisles, are covered with bold intersecting vaults. The third gallery was vaulted with rampant conical vaults, and above that are eight windows giving light to the central dome. [Illustration: Half Plan Gallery Floor. Half Plan Lower Storey. 724. Plan of the Church at Aix-la-Chapelle. (From J. von Nolten.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in. ] To the west was a bold tower-like building, flanked, as is usual in this style, by two circular towers containing staircases. To the east was a semicircular niche containing the altar, which was removed in 1353, when the present choir was built to replace it. There is a tradition that Otho III. rebuilt this minster, though it is more probable that he built for himself a tomb-house behind the altar of that of his illustrious predecessor, where his bones were laid, and where his tomb till lately stood at the spot marked X in the centre of the new choir. What the architect seems to have done in the 14th century was to throw the two buildings into one, retaining the outline of Otho’s tomb-house, which may still be detected in the unusual form shown in the plan of the new building.