DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0083
60 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
The dome of the building is of wood, covered externally with lead, and internally
with stucco, richly gilt and painted ; its height is about ninety-six feet. The windows of
the external wall and clerestory are remarkable for the beauty of their tracery, no less
than for the brilliancy of their colouring and for the admirable way in which the different
colours are blended, producing perfect harmony in the whole. To be seen to advantage
they should have the full blaze of a Syrian sun streaming through them. One window
near the western door is of special beauty. The light is admitted through three mediums.
First, there is on the outside a thick perforated framework of cement covered with
THE CAVE UNDER THE GREAT ROCK ON MOUNT MORI AH.
faience; this allows the light to pass to a second window of stone with white glass, and
thence to the inner window, which gives the design and colourincr. In this inner window
the small pieces of coloured glass are inserted obliquely, and not vertically, so as to
overhang and meet the eye of the spectator at right angles. Nothing can equal the
exquisite taste with which the pieces of glass are arranged or the charming brightness of
the colouring; and the combined effect is certainly not surpassed by that of any windows
in Europe. Some of the windows bear the name of Suleiman, and the date 935 (1528 a.d.),
the same period to which the finest specimens of the porcelain tiles are assigned.
The dome of the building is of wood, covered externally with lead, and internally
with stucco, richly gilt and painted ; its height is about ninety-six feet. The windows of
the external wall and clerestory are remarkable for the beauty of their tracery, no less
than for the brilliancy of their colouring and for the admirable way in which the different
colours are blended, producing perfect harmony in the whole. To be seen to advantage
they should have the full blaze of a Syrian sun streaming through them. One window
near the western door is of special beauty. The light is admitted through three mediums.
First, there is on the outside a thick perforated framework of cement covered with
THE CAVE UNDER THE GREAT ROCK ON MOUNT MORI AH.
faience; this allows the light to pass to a second window of stone with white glass, and
thence to the inner window, which gives the design and colourincr. In this inner window
the small pieces of coloured glass are inserted obliquely, and not vertically, so as to
overhang and meet the eye of the spectator at right angles. Nothing can equal the
exquisite taste with which the pieces of glass are arranged or the charming brightness of
the colouring; and the combined effect is certainly not surpassed by that of any windows
in Europe. Some of the windows bear the name of Suleiman, and the date 935 (1528 a.d.),
the same period to which the finest specimens of the porcelain tiles are assigned.