280 Captains Irby and Mangles's Accmint of the Keciopohs 



from those of the Romans, and in others a plain horizontal ar- 

 chitecture with the same character in the mouldings. It is re- 

 markable that in very many instances the whole frame and 

 ornament of the door has been of separate pieces, and grafted 

 on upon the solid rock. Sometimes there are cavities for pegs 

 or rivets, which would seem to have fastened these decorations 

 in metal or in wood. In others they seem to have been of mar- 

 ble, or some finer sort of stohe set into grooves, which show in 

 the hollow their exact form. We were at a loss to account for 

 the apparent conformity of this single member of the building 

 to the rules of the Greeks and Romans. It seems too strong to 

 be accidental ; and if we suppose the imitation to have taken 

 place so far back as the first Macedonian expedition into this 

 country, it will still make the tombs by many ages more recent 

 than it is probable that many of them really are; since, from 

 the days of Rekem, king of the Midianites, who passes for the 

 founder of Petra, to those of Alexander the Great, there must 

 have been a long suite of kings, and these monarchs probably 

 had tombs. Yet, if the form of the door-ways be judged de- 

 cidedly posterior to that period, it is so general that few if any 

 of the larger sort will remain for that early dynasty. If we 

 bring them still later, and suppose them a Roman innovation, 

 the difficulty is increased ; because we must then believe a much 

 greater lapse of ages to have passed in a flourishing kingdom 

 without any considerable monuments, when architecture was 

 not unknown. It is possible such of the door-frames as were 

 not cut in the solid may have been added afterwards, but this 

 does not appear very probable, nor does it entirely remove the 

 difficulty ; especially, as in some instances in the higher parts of 

 the design, broad bands seem to have been attached in a simi- 

 lar manner, which very probably were charged with inscrip- 

 tions. 



It is surprising, amongst such a multitude of tombs, to find 

 so few with any inscription to record for whom they were con- 

 structed. We only met with two instances. One was on the 

 tomb which had a door in the attic already mentioned, as 

 being near the theatre. It is much mutilated. The other 

 which we copied is on the left hand side of the track leading 

 towards Dibdebar, on a large front of pure Arabian design, 



