In medieval times the west front faced on to a graveyard. The doorways were used primarily for ceremonial and liturgical purposes. The elaborate program of sculpture, while never completed, may well have included, as it does today, statues of prophets, apostles and saints, the company of heaven who proclaim the Christian message of salvation and a life in the world to come. The wall in the foreground is a remnant of the graveyard wall that originally surrounded the entire cathedral precinct.