“And as an island rises amidst the swelling billows, bright with patterns of cornfields, and vineyards, and blossoming meadows, and wooded heights, while sailors, as they steer by it, are gladdened, and the troubles and anxieties of the sea are beguiled; so in the middle space of the boundless temple rises upright the tower-like ambo of stone, with its marble pastures like meadows, cunningly wrought with the beauty of the craftsman’s art. Yet though it stands in the middle, it is not quite cut off, like an island girdled by the sea, but is rather like some wave-washed land, extended by a narrow isthmus through the gray billows into the middle of the sea, and were it not for this binding chain, it would be cut off and seen as a true island; but though it projects into the ocean, it is still joined to the mainland coast by the isthmus, as by a cable. “Such is the ambo; for a long path starts from the last step of its eastern flight, and stretches out until it comes to the space by the twin silver doors, even striking with its lengthy plinth the fence wall of the sacred rites; and the path is warded on both sides by walls. Now for these fence walls they have not placed lofty slabs, but they are as high up as the navel of a man standing by them; and here the priest, as he holds the golden gospel, passes along, and the surging crowd strive to touch the sacred book with their lips and hands, while moving waves of people break around. “Thus is this path prolonged like an isthmus, wave-washed on either side, and it leads the priest as he descends from the distant ambo with its lofty cliffs, to the shrine of the holy table. And the whole path on both sides is fenced with the fresh green stone of Thessaly; and the abundant rich meadows of the stones bring the delight of beauty to the eyes. Now at both ends of each slab from Thessaly stand posts of equal height, not like a cylinder in form: one skilled in figures would say that the posts were not equal-sided, but have the shape of a lengthened cube. And the masons (_laotoroi_) have made the joints of the Molossian slabs, by wedging one stone into another; it is from the Phrygian land that the stone-cutter (_laotupos_) has had these posts quarried. And resting the wandering glance there one might see snake-like coils twining over the fair marble, winding in beauteous paths; there white and fiery red are set alongside of one another and a flesh colour between both, the lines bending in alternating coils, as they roll round in their courses. First on one side, then on another, are seen the forms of the moon and stars.