There cannot be a doubt that the present S. Sophia occupies the site of the first church. A church once made holy by dedication and the reception of relics could not be transported. Indeed it is possible that it may occupy the site of one of the Greek temples, for there was a constant tendency to this supersession on one sacred site; and the present church stands on the very crest of the old Acropolis. If there were any sufficient reason to identify the site with that of the altar of Pallas, the dedication of the church itself would evidently be one of the many instances of a transference of title from the old worship. The Parthenon--where Hellenic rites survived to the sixth century--became a church in this way dedicated to the Holy Wisdom.[32] The axis of the church seems to point somewhere between 30° and 35° south of east, where there is a considerable sea prospect and a low horizon. This direction, either by accident or intention, must agree very closely with sunrise at the winter solstice:[33] the latitude of the church being 41° 0′ 26″. The plan will show that the ancient Hippodrome, and probably the other buildings, were set out in relation to this axis. In comparing the early Basilicas of Constantinian date, both those that exist and those of which we have descriptions, we find that they generally, if not invariably, had their doors of entrance at the _east_ end, and their apses towards the west, exactly the opposite of the more recent custom. Rohault De Fleury says this was usual in the East till the fifth century, and the custom continued much later in Rome. Kraus, in the best study of the subject,[34] writes: “S. Agatha at Ravenna must be mentioned as the first which had its altar at the east end: it was built in 417, and in this century the practice became general.” Socrates († 440) says of the church of Antioch that “the altar stood not at the east but at the _west_,” but he speaks of this as contrary to the usual custom at the time he wrote. This church was founded by Constantine and finished by his son. The Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, built by Constantine to contain the relics of S. Luke, seems also to have been entered at the east, for S. John Chrysostom[35] speaks of the emperor being buried “in the part in front of the doors,” and an anonymous author, who wrote about the imperial sepulchres, says that Constantine’s sarcophagus was “in front towards the east.”[36] We shall thus be following the reasonable suggestion of comparative archæology in saying that the first church of S. Sophia almost certainly had its entrance doors at the east--the sanctuary end of the present church.