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pears to have covered more than a mile in length, nearly from north to south, by a variable breadth of about half a mile. The rocky walls rise almost perpendicularly to the height of six or seven hundred feet.

The chief public edifices occupied the banks of the river, on the south side of which an edifice is still standing, called "Pharaoh's Treasure," which seems to have been a palace. The excavations in the solid rock, however, are by far the most deserving of notice. Whether formed for temples, tombs, or the dwellings of living men, they surprise the visitor by their incredible number and extent. They are seen in precipitous rocks along the approaches to the place. If instead of following the sinuosities of the mountain and its numerous gorges, they were ranged

in regular order, like the houses of a well-built city, they would form a street not less than five or six miles in length. They are often seen rising one above another in the face of the cliff; convenient steps, now much worn, lead in all directions through the fissures, and along the sides of the mountains, to the various tombs that occupy these lofty positions. Some of them are not less than from two to three or four hundred feet above the level of the valley.

Besides the unadorned habitations of the humble dead, there is a vast number of excavations enriched with various architectural designs. To these unique and sumptuous monuments of the most ancient races of men, Petra is indebted for its great and peculiar attractions. The front of the mountain is wrought into

façades of splendid temples, rivalling in their aspect and symmetry the most celebrated monuments of Grecian art. Columns of various orders, graceful pediments, broad, rich entablatures, and sometimes statuary, all hewn out of the solid rock, and still making part of the native mass, transform the base of the mountain into a vast, splendid pile of architecture; while the overhanging cliffs, towering above in shapes rugged and wild, produce the most striking and curious of contrasts.

But nothing contributes so much to the almost magical effect of some of these monuments, as the rich and various colours of the rock in which they are formed. The mountains that encompass the vale of Petra are of sandstone, of which red is the predominating hue. But many of them are adorned with a profusion of the most lovely and brilliant colours. Red, purple, yellow, azure, or skyblue, black, and white, are seen in the same mass, distinctly in successive layers, or blended so as to form every shade and hue-as brilliant and as soft as they ever appear in flowers, in the plumage of birds, or in the sky when illuminated by the most glorious sunset.

The Khuzneh, or Pharaoh's Treasure," struck Robinson with amazement and delight: "All at once the beautiful façade of the Khuzneh in the western precipice burst upon our view in all the delicacy of its first chiselling, and in all the freshness of beauty of its soft colouring. Nothing I had seen of architectural effect in Rome or Thebes, or even Athens, comes up to it in the first impression. Its wonderful state of preservation, the glow and tint of the stone, and the wild scenery around, all are unique, and combine to take complete possession of the mind. There it stands, as it has stood for ages, in beauty and loneliness; the generations which admired and rejoiced over it of old

have passed away; the wild Arab, as he wanders by, regards it with stupid indifference or scorn; and none are left, but strangers from distant lands, to do it reverence. Its rich roseate tints, as I bade it farewell, were gilded by the mellow beams of the morning sun; and I turned away from it at length with an impression which will be effaced only by death."

The name Khuzneh is given because the Arabs think the place contains the treasure which they ascribe to Pharaoh, and which they suppose to be held in the urn crowning the summit of its ornamental front, a hundred feet above the ground. Their only interest in all these monuments is to search for hidden treasures; and, as they find nothing elsewhere, they fancy they are in the urn, which to them is inaccessible. It bears the marks of many musketballs, which they have fired at it, in the hope of breaking it to pieces, and thus obtaining the imagined wealth.

Robinson thus describes the general impression which he received: "Around us were the desolations of ages the dwellings and edifices of the ancient city crumbled and strewed in the dust-the mausolea of the dead, in all their pristine beauty and freshness, but long since rifled, and the ashes of their tenants scattered to the winds. Well might there be the stillness of death; for it was the grave itself—a city of the dead by which we were surrounded."

History gives but scanty details. of this rock-hewn city which once received the caravans of Arabia, India and Persia, and sent their rich stores on to Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Greece. A city whose king, during the last melancholy tragedies of Jewish independence, marched out at the head of fifty thousand men, entered Jerusalem, and besieged the temple until commanded by Rome to desist-its site was lost to civilization for nearly a thousand years.

Under the name of Bozrah it is mentioned in the Old TestamentIsa. xxxiv. 6; lxiii. 1. Jer. xlix. 13, 22. Amos i. 12. It was very ancient; for it is referred to in Gen. xxxvi. 33, as the native city of one of the princes of Edom, who lived "before there reigned any king over the children of Israel." It is spoken of in terms which seem to indicate that it was the capital of Edom or Idumæa. We, are, then, inclined to identify Bozrah with Petra.

Josephus mentions Petra as the capital of Arabia Petræa. In the reign of Trajan, it came under the sway of the Romans. His successor, Adrian, appears to have granted privileges to Petra, which led the inhabitants to give his name to the city upon coins. In the sixth century, Petra was the Metropolitan See of what was termed the third Palestine. From that time Petra suddenly vanished from the pages of history till rediscovered in our own times.

These remarkable ruins of Petra are continually guarded by a tribe of Bedouin

Arabs, who live in the village of Eljy, about two miles north-east. They keep careful watch, because they believe that it is the object of every white traveller who visits Petra to discover and carry away the riches of antiquity there hidden. Many a would-be visitor has been driven back from the very gates, robbed and insulted, without so much as a bird's-eye view of Petra to compensate him for ten days of hard desert travel.

The sides of the mountains are cut to smooth perpendicular faces, which are occupied by unbroken

ranges of temples and of homes for the living and the dead. The interiors behind the ornate fronts are but caves squared by the old stonecutter, and are lighted only by their doors. While the bases and beetling sides of the mountains are fashioned into architectural forms that are as enduring as the eternal hills from which they are hewn, the picturesque summits above display nature in her wildest and most savage garb.

The following is the graphic account by Mr. E. L. Wilson of his recent visit: We followed a stream

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ROCK-TOMB AT PETRA.

a few yards, and descending, as the pass narrowed, the entrance of the frightful chasm, seen afar off at sunrise, was reached at last. What an impregnable gateway! Spanning it is a fine buttressed arch, resting upon rock-cut foundations. Beneath this a little stream gurgles. We followed it through the only entrance -the "front door" of Petra. It is difficult to conceive anything more sublime.

When we had come fairly inside the gorge, we found it at times so narrow that two of us could not walk a breast. Its perpendicular sides

vary in height from four hundred to seven hundred feet, and frequently, without absolutely meeting, they overhang to such a degree that the sky is shut out from the sight for a hundred yards at a stretch.

We scraped away the débris to the depth of nearly two feet, and reached the antique pavement. It was found deeply furrowed by the tires of the chariot-wheels which once coursed along this cavernous highway-as deeply cut as some of the lava pavements of resurrected Pompeii.

At every turn we saw evidences of indefatigable effort, and of how lavishly labour was expended by the people who lived in Petra in its days of power. All seemed the work of some giant magician's wand. The defile, indeed, is called Wady Mousa by the Arabs, because they believe that the Patriarch Moses, by one stroke of his staff, caused the mountains to separate and to form this tremendous fissure in order to enable him to pass on to Mount Hor, accompanying Aaron, to help him die and lay him at rest. For nearly two miles we followed this semi-subterranean passage. The pathway now descended; the water grew deeper, the opposing thicket more impassable, the scene more grand. A sudden turn in the gorge was passed; and, as I looked skyward, through the rocky vista, I caught the first glimpse of that remarkable creation, the Khuzneh! Only partly seen at first, beyond the tall, narrow opening, carved in stone of a pale rose colour, were columns, capitals, and cornices, as new-looking as if of yesterday. With what subtle judg ment was the site chosen! But when and by whom, no one knows-mysterious history conceals.

Scarcely had I chosen for myself a comfortable seat among the rocks, when I heard a great crashing noise in the gorge beyond, as though an earthquake had sent great masses of stone down to prevent our exit. The

sound came nearer and nearer, booming and bounding through the gorge. The Bedouins were upon us!

I scrambled down to the mouth of the gorge, arriving just in time to see rush furiously towards me six mounted Arabs of wily mien, with long-reaching lances on their shoulders. I stood to await their arrival. They were as surprised to see me as I was to see them, and now they halted. I cried out "Sahib," and offered my hand. To my surprise it was taken good-naturedly by all of the party, and a declaration of friendliness passed between us. We were in their city, and now they were bound to protect us (and rob us!) they declared. We were led triumphantly into Petra by the very men who would have prevented our entrance amid exactions and bluster, had they caught us.

Then another scheme had to be perfected. As a rule, when travellers get into Petra at all, they are hurried out again as rapidly as possible, seldom remaining a full day. wanted to stay long enough to get at least a tolerable photographic record of the ruins. I objected to take my departure. The chief then attempted to levy on my purse. I discussed the subject with him, agreed to some of his propositions, paid on account, and asked until next day to consider the rest. Thus I prolonged my visit. But for four days only. I began to realize then that if we remained there any longer we should be literally cleaned out, and perhaps killed by the Bedouins.

News spreads like wild-fire in modern Edom; and before we first saw the sunset beyond Mount Hor, some sixty of Esau's descendants had followed us and had opened offices in these excavations. Never was so savage a haunt for banditti conceived by Salvator Rosa. The trouble then began. Each individual Arab claimed the privilege of showing the city to the stranger. From their bluster I made up my

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