Church Apse

View looking south at the apse and chancel of the fifth century Byzantine Church.

The benches in the apse (synthronos) were used for clergy.  Note the two column stubs just to the right of the apse (just left of center of the image).  Although covered now, a shaft that led down to an underground chamber was discovered here!  This may have been a tomb or a reliquary—a place where sacred remains or artifacts where housed and venerated by pilgrims.

Note also the passage way behind the apse.