The other ruin, related to this one as well by name as by the style of its workmanship—but in many respects more interesting, having been evidently once a place of Christian worship—stands on a narrow and detached neck of rock in the Shʿabet Um el Kharáb, and, from its whole plan, appears to have been originally and principally a church about forty-three feet square, sufficiently large for a small congregation, and with more art and comfort than one can easily suppose a Christian community in these quarters ever to have possessed. Hence greater interest attaches to this building than it would otherwise deserve. It closes with a plain apsis, in which there are two openings or doorways leading into an open room stretching behind it and the side-naves, and is divided into three naves, the middle one of which is eight paces, and the lateral ones six and a half wide. The naves are divided from one another by columns with differently ornamented capitals supporting arches, all in the so-called round style of architecture. I made purposely a sketch of two different capitals, in order to show their designs; and I think they are very characteristic. But it is curious to observe that the walls also appear to have been originally painted on stucco, though at present but a small piece of it remains near the corner; hence I conclude that the date of the painting was later than that of the erection of the church. The front of the building has suffered in some degree from the depredations of the Arabs, who are said to have carried away a great many sculptures from this place—as much, indeed, a man from Mizda would have made me believe, as fifty-five camel-loads. However exaggerated this statement may be, it is evident that the whole layer over the entrance was originally covered with ornamental slabs, while now only two remain to the left of the doorway; and these, though in the same style of sculpture as the capitals, would rather seem to have been taken from another edifice. There are many debatable points involved in the consideration of this building. The first fact clearly shown is the existence of a Christian community or a monastery in these remote valleys, as late as the twelfth century at least, under the protection of a powerful chief; and this is not at all improbable, as we know that Mohammed expressly ordered that zealous priests and monks should be spared, and as we find so many monasteries in several other Mohammedan countries. That it was not merely a church, but a monastery, seems plainly indicated by the division into apartments or cells, which is still clearly to be seen in the upper story. Attached to the north side of the church was a wing containing several simple apartments, as the ground-plan shows; and on the south corner of the narrow ridge is a small separate tower with two compartments. Near this ruin there is another, which I did not visit, called Ksaer Labayed mtʿa Derayer, while a third,