Identifier: cradleofmankindl00wigrrich (find matches)
Title: The cradle of mankind; life in eastern Kurdistan
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Wigram, W. A. (William Ainger), 1872-1953 Wigram, Edgar Thomas Ainger, Sir, 1864-1935
Subjects: Kurds Kurdistan -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, A. & C. Black, ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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body of the temple consists of twin naves, dividedlongitudinally by a pointed arcade, and roofed with twopointed barrel vaults. The general effect of the architectureis very similar to that of a rude early thirteenth-centurychurch in the mountain districts of England. The naveslie due east and west ; and possibly this Orientation wasintentional, for certain traces of sun worship do survivein the Yezidi creed. But more probably the lines of thebuilding were dictated by the nature of the site, for thelonger axis would naturally run parallel with stream andhill. Moreover any significance that might be attachedto the arrangement is altogether discounted by the factthat the sanctuary is placed, not at the eastern end, but * A hatchet forms part of the Miras insignia when he is fully arrayedfor performing religious rites ; and a comb has also certain magic pro-perties, as instanced on p. 306. t The Christians always remove their shoes in their churches, in additionto uncovering their heads.
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o7^ << 0) <A O x;H 3 O D 6 o THE UNHOLY OF UNHOLIES 97 in the centre of the northern side. This is a plan which isfrequently followed in the more easterly Christian churches ;and which indicates that the builders adopted as theirmodel, not the Roman basilica, but the Persian AudienceHall. The floor of the southern nave is three steps lower thanthat of the northern ; and at its western end is a square tankof running water, sunk below the level of the floor. Cere-monial ablutions have a prominent place in the ritual ofYezidi worship. There is a second tiny tank in the quad-rangle : and a third (evidently fed by the overflow of thetank in the nave) just under the south-western angle of thetemple, on the level of the lower terrace. A dwarf wallbetween the arcade pillars fences off the central bays ofthe upper nave, thus enclosing a sort of presbytery infront of the opening to the sanctuary. At the eastern end we turned to the left through a doorin the northern wall, and entered t

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