Sedia gestatoria an elaborate variation on the sedan chair. Two large fans ("flabella") made of white ostrich feathers —a relic of the ancient liturgical use of the "flabellum", mentioned in the "Constitutiones Apostolicae"— were carried at either side of the "sedia gestatoria". The ceremonial throne was mainly used to carry popes to and from papal ceremonies in the Basilica of St. John Lateran and St. Peter's Basilica. The "sedia" was used as part of papal ceremony for nearly a millennium. Its origins are sometimes thought to date back to the Byzantine Empire where Byzantine emperors were carried along in a similar manner,
Religion and geography Religion and geography Religion and geography is the study of the impact of geography, i.e. place and space, on religious belief. Another aspect of the relationship between religion and geography is "religious geography", in which geographical ideas are influenced by religion, such as early map-making, and the "biblical geography" that developed in the 16th century to identify places from the Bible. Traditionally, the relationship between geography and religion can clearly be seen by the influences of religion in shaping cosmological understandings of the world. From the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the study of geography and religion mainly focused on mapping