Some considerable remains of the atrium colonnade were in existence in the present century, but they were finally destroyed in 1873.[308] The present boundary of the western court appears to occupy the position of the exterior west wall of the atrium. Outside it there is a level roadway, beyond which the ground falls rapidly to the street. As the church stands across a hill the ground had to be made up to a level, and this, together with the position of the street, would account for the court not having been square as was usually the case. As excavations have shown that the pavement of the Hippodrome and the Augusteum were eight or ten feet below the present level,[309] steps would have been required to attain the level of the church at the west. The _Ceremonies_ show that the royal processions entered and left the church on the south side through the Augusteum, which served as a great forecourt to the church on this side. Without doubt this was the principal entrance. Clavijo and other visitors all appear to have entered the church from the south. When Grelot’s western view was made (before 1680) no west doors to the atrium existed, but it was entered from the north and south only. In our plan we have therefore shown only one door in the west wall of the atrium, possibly there was none (Fig. 3). [Illustration: FIG. 25.--Original state of West Front as built by Justinian.] Outside the present south-west entrance of the court there remained until 1869 a stone inscribed ✚ϹΑϹΘϹΕΝΘΑΔΕΚΑΤΟΙΚΙΜΗΔΕΙ.... Its form suggests that it was a step, or it may have been a lintel from one of the doors into the atrium or the rim from a fountain.[310] The words “The Holy God dwelleth here let no....” may be compared with the inscriptions for fountains and gates given on pages 84 and 264. This atrium court of S. Sophia was called by the Byzantine authors _aule_, _mesaulion_, _aithria_, and by some late writer, _garçonastasion_, which Du Cange explains as “the place where pages wait.” The cloistered walk originally surrounded it and formed a quadriporticus; although the eastern walk, the present exonarthex, is inclosed and entirely different from the other colonnaded walks, the atrium is often referred to as “Four-porticoed” (_Tetrastoon_). It cannot therefore be doubted that the exonarthex with its great piers replaced the original eastern walk, for the sake of greater abutment to the church. This is equally clear from the building itself and the description of the poet. (See Figs. 3, 24, 25, 29). The “Propylaeum” often spoken of must either be this exonarthex, or the gateways in the atrium.