lower Galleries, nor those of the two _Semi-domes_, nor those of the _Sanctum Sanctorum_, and the upper _Portico_, which I omitted to count, by reason of the great Number of them. The largest Entrance into this Church is on the West Side of it, where you do not ascend the Pavement as formerly, and as the _Romans_ did their _Pantheon_, nor do you descend into it by five Steps. You go up to the Top of the Church by four Pair of winding Stairs, not winding round in the Manner of a Cockle-shell, as _Cedrinus_ reports, but turning more upon the Square, and work’d by the Line. These Stairs rise with a very easy Ascent, and are cut out of large Marble Tables. Every Turning of these Stairs is nineteen Foot and a half high, and five Foot broad. Above these there is another Pair of winding Stairs which reach to the Top of the Church. You must ascend these when you go to the upper Galleries, and _Portico’s_. If the Reader will give himself the Trouble to compare what I have said of the Church of St. _Sophia_, with what has been written by _Procopius_ and _Agathius_ upon that Subject, he may easily discover, that the Ruins of what was built by _Justinian_ have not been so great as the _Turks_ pretend, who tell you, that the Church was formerly much larger, and that several Parts of it have been pull’d down by the _Barbarians_, and that there is scarce a tenth Part of it remaining at this Day. This Story would carry a Face of Probability in it, if they meant, that the Palaces, the Houses of the Priests and the Noblemen, which were built about it, had been demolish’d by Fire, and the Ravage of those People, otherwise I am convinc’d ’tis a gross Mistake; for I saw every Part of the old Church standing, mention’d by _Procopius_, except one _Portico_. For whereas _Procopius_ writes, that the Church had two _Portico’s_ at each End of it, there is none, remaining at present, but only that at the West End. ’Tis very probable that the other was thrown down by an Earthquake, and that in the Room of it, the Inhabitants erected a large Lump of Building of square Stone, which is now standing, to support the East end of the Church. This Lump of Stone you would take to be a Piece of a craggy Rock, though it does not seem, by reason of the Earthquakes, to be of the same Height as it was when it was first built, yet is it as near as high, as _Evagrius_ mentions it to be. Since which, to fortify the labouring Pillars, it is lengthen’d with four Walls. These Walls are more than twenty Foot long and eight Foot broad, rising to the Height of the great Pillars, and seem, to speak in the Terms of Architecture, to be Wings to the Church, or rather Buttresses, by which the North and South Side of it are strengthen’d and supported. Both Ends of the Church, which project beyond the eight Pillars, extending themselves each into a _Semi-dome_, and rising at Top into an arched Form, are yet remaining. The same lower Galleries for the Men, and the same