Passing over some unimportant objects, which are sufficiently described by their titles on the Plan, we enter the western part of the church, in which is the rotunda supporting the great dome[410]. This, as I have already said, is an example of the usual bad taste of the Greeks at Jerusalem. Its heavy and clumsy architectural features are not worth a description, and it is to be hoped that at the next restoration of the church, this structure will be replaced by one more worthy to cover the Holy Sepulchre. On the ground-floor of the rotunda are some chambers occupied by the monks of the different communities to which they belong, together with three passages leading up to the lower gallery, and another going to the so-called tombs of Joseph and Nicodemus. The two galleries above are divided among the different religious communities. The whole of the lower one, except the three central arches on the west, belongs to the Greeks, and the greater part of the upper to the Latins; the Armenians possessing the last six arches towards the east on the south side. The property of each party is marked by pictures attached to the pillars. Above the upper gallery are windows, some grated, the rest built up. The former look upon the terrace-roof, which belongs to the Greeks, and are employed by them; the latter used to communicate with a chamber in the building called the Hospice of Saladin; these were closed not many years ago. The dome is surrounded by a gallery belonging, as I have said, to the Greeks, and at the top, in the middle, is a circular opening enclosed by an iron grating, to prevent the Mohammedans who occupy the neighbouring houses from throwing anything into the building. However, the miracle-mongers relate that Jesus Christ was recalled to life from this place, and that no human power can ever close it up. Certain it is, that if the architect at the forthcoming restoration does not find some other means of admitting air and light into the dome, (no difficult task,) he will be obliged to leave an opening there, at any rate not less than the present; and the rain will continue to flood the pavement below, and injure the health of the Priests and acolytes who pass their time there. In the middle of the rotunda is the monument of the Holy Sepulchre[411], also an ugly Greek edifice of the date 1810. It is cased with Palestine breccia of a yellowish and reddish colour, which is found abundantly in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem; it takes as good a polish and produces the same effect as marble. A small rude chapel, belonging to the Abyssinians, rests against the west end of the building; it was erected between the years 1537 and 1540, when the Franciscan fathers, then the sole guardians of the Sanctuary, were prisoners at Damascus. At the east ends of the north and south walls of the monument are two oval openings; these are chiefly used in distributing the Holy Fire on Easter Eve; that famous and scandalous