The Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes
” To the extremities on the four sides of the earth the heaven is fastened at its own four extremities, making the figure a cube, that is to say, a quadrangular figure, while up above it curves round in the form of an oblong vault and becomes as it were a vast canopy. And in the middle the firmament is made fast to it, and thus two places are formed. From the earth to the firmament is the first place, this world namely, in which are the angels and men and all the present state of existence. From the firmament again to the vault above is the second place — the kingdom of heaven, into which Christ, first of all entered, after his ascension, having prepared for us a new and living way. On the western side and the eastern the outline presented is short, as in the case of an oblong vault, but on its north and south sides it shows its length’. Its figure is therefore something such as this”
