Four steps lead up from the narthex to the little, undecorated doorway by which we entered the principal building. The interior may perhaps be described as consisting of four apses, the whole surmounted by the lofty dome. A feature are the deep recesses, narrow at the entrance, which are placed one on either side of each apse, and are seen from the outside between the arms of the cruciform figure. The apses on the west and east are deeper than those on the north and south; the most southerly contains a gallery of which the face is adorned with images, two heads of bulls and two of rams, the head of an elephant and of a tiger, carved in full relief out of the stone. In this gallery we were informed that King Gagik had been wont to pray. The walls had been adorned by rich frescos; but little of these remained. The apse on the north communicates with a vaulted chamber and a little chapel, where is preserved the holy oil. A cemetery surrounds the church, from the south-east corner to the north side. Issuing by the portico on the south, we stopped to remark an ambitious tomb of which the stone was fresh from the chiseller's tool. On the sides of the recumbent portion were represented the figures of apostles--a frieze which had probably been copied from some rude work of the Middle Ages, and which was coloured in gaudy reds and greens and blues. Upon the upper surface of the slab was engraved a long inscription, and beneath the inscription the grand emblem of the double-headed eagle, with cross and mitre, the eagle of Vaspurakan. The headstone was adorned with the portrait of a katholikos, wearing the cross of diamonds on his cowl. The features were those of our host; it was the tomb of Khachatur, into which he had told us that he was preparing to step. The legend set forth that the grave had been dedicated on September 12, 1893. Following this announcement, came a farewell message from His Holiness, conceived in the following terms:-- I approach thee, O fair grave, with a greeting; my secrets to tell I have no tongue, because they were lost before I came to speak with thee. The generations of my people I grieve to relinquish; I Khachatur, given to the Cross, will obey the Cross (es Khachatur i Khachis ku-pakchim). When I come to thee, all the manifold memories will have vanished. Whatever I may leave behind me--the holy oils, the library, the cowl, the stole, the staff--I leave them to serve as a memory of me for my successors. Lastly I approach my people and entreat them to be loyal to Sultan Hamid, the illustrious, because during my whole life I have found help from him and from his high officers. My soul will be protected by the weekly prayer of my pupils; pray for me weekly for a while and forget me not.