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The Monreale mosaics were meant to impress, humble and inspire the visitor who walked down the central nave, following the fashion of Constantinople, the capital of the surviving Roman empire in the east.

For example, archaeologist Cédric Moulis of the University of Lorraine painstakingly reassembled dozens of wedge-shaped stones called voussoirs recovered from the collapsed vaulted ceiling over the nave to glean insights into their mechanical properties.

More than 6,000 tonnes of steel were used to build the nave.

She knows the location of the hidden trapdoor that leads to the rafters of the arch above the nave.

Born in New York City into an observant Jewish family, he owns a small timber framing business in rural New England and admits that until recently he didn’t even know what a nave was.