In Approaching the Cathedral, the user may choose to explore the exterior of the cathedral by simply opening the images embedded in the ground plan.  Or you may move through interior spaces using the linked panoramas: just click on the arrow and you will move forward.  But if you want an informative sequenced experience, click Launch Tour and you will find a succession of views and locational prompts moving around and toward the cathedral.  A short text sometimes with additional images will prompt the interlocutor with language and terminology to describe what we can see and also to tell the story of the lost material circumstances, answering three most important questions.  First, how did Amiens first become a major city?  Second, how did the cathedral come into being?  And third, how can we locate the cathedral in its urban context at the time of construction?  The question of urban roots will lead us back to Roman Amiens, Samarobriva, with its extensive grid system of city streets, its great public buildings and, by the 3rd century, its defensive wall.  The cathedral has its roots in Antiquity: it is laid out with a grid system similar to the Roman grid, employing the Roman foot unit and is articulated with elements of the classical order with its base, column or colonnette and capital (refer to the Parthenon).  The second question will lead us to the 3rd-century establishment of Christianity in the area, and the stories of the saints, particularly Saint Martin and Saint Firmin.  Although the miracle of Saint Martin and the beggar took place at the city gate of Amiens, this mega-saint of the early Middle Ages, does not have a strong presence in the cathedral; Firmin is everywhere--the story of the bishop's arrival in the city, conversion of the people, martyrdom and the miracle of the discovery of his relics is told in the north portal of the west facade and in the southern lateral screen of the choir.  The miraculous discovery of the relics lies at the heart of the story of the cathedral and is intended to lead us forward to the place where the saint's relics reposed in a magnificent silver and gold châsse at the center of the elevated relic tribune directly behind the main altar at the center of the sanctuary.   As to the third question relating to the urban context of the Gothic cathedral at the time of construction, we present a plan of the city which then numbered 15-20,000. Our plan is coded with colors to indicate control over urban space: you can see that the clergy controlled relatively little and most of the city was in the hands of the commune.  The wealth necessary for the construction of the cathedral came from agrarian production in the extensive lands owned by the clergy and from commercial rights over the flourishing textile industry: the chapter controlled the system of waterways and watermills employed in the industrial production of woolen cloth.  The accompanying texts also invite the user to engage in close looking and to see the evidence suggesting constructional chronology and the identity of the architects.