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Room 2
At the
south side of the east wall of Room 1 a small rectangular opening leads into
Room 2, a narrow rectangular room with a bench along west, east and south
walls. The room is roughly barrel-vaulted at its north end and has a flat
ceiling at the south end, carried above a cornice. West, east and south walls
at this end of the room have a decoration of arched blind niches; those on the
west and east walls taper off at their north sides. The niche of the south wall
contains a large rectangular window, overlooking the valley.
Room 8
The porch,
like the church, was plastered, but most of the plaster has fallen away. Fragments
remain on the east wall, around the church entrance, and on the easternmost
edges of north and south walls. Just below the cornice on each side is a
painted inscription of seven lines on the north side and three lines on the
south. The lines of the inscription appear to be complete and since they occupy
the whole width of the plastered area of the porch it is possible that the
plaster did not extend right across the porch wall, but was confined to a
narrow vertical band the width of the inscription. Unlikely though this may
seem, the alternative is to assume that by chance the area of plaster with the
inscription has been preserved while the rest is lost. The text, a
dodecasyllabic poem, is as follows:
‘Let no one
be misled by the desire for wealth for the love of money has destroyed many. For
this flesh is earth, clay and...’
The poem
appears to refer to the tomb chamber below it, but clearly does not supply any
information on the inhabitants of the chamber.
Room 12
A secondary
opening in the west wall of Room 12 leads into Room 13, described below. The
only original opening is the rectangular entrance from Area 10, described above,
which opens into the south wall of Room 12. In the southeast corner of the room
a chimney has been cut through the ceiling, and the room is much blackened by
smoke.
Room 18
There are
two openings in the south wall of the east gallery: to the west, the entrance
to another elbow-shaped passage leading to the east end of the south gallery
(18c) and to the east an opening into the long tunnel (b) which links the east
wall of Room 18 with Room 13.
Room 28
This is a small barrel-vaulted room with cornices, a transverse arch and wall arches, like so many others of the monastery. One lunette is decorated with a relief carving of a horned animal. The location of the stable suggests that the tunnel was once the only entrance to the monastery, and that horses and pack animals had to be left at the foot of the hill and the tunnel entered on foot. The room with the horned animal may conceivably have been a gatehouse of sorts.
