'>'^S^>^i;y^qf Petra, a City excavatedfrom the solid Rock. 231 



with four attached columns ; and in this monument the archi- 

 tect, from failure, or a defective vein in the sandstone, has 

 been obliged to carry up the lower half in masonry, so as to 

 meet the upper, which is sculptured on the face of the moun- 

 tain, where also there were flaws, and here pieces have been 

 let in to make up what was defective. These last remain, but 

 the whole substructure has disappeared entirely, and the upper 

 part is left hanging from the rock above without any base 

 whatever. This is not the only proof that is to be found 

 among the remains at Petra, that those who wrought on the 

 live rock, contrary to the necessary practice of builders, 

 began their work at the top. To return to the inscription ; 

 it is upon an oblong tablet without frame or relief, but is 

 easily distinguished from the rest of the surface from, be- 

 ing more delicately wrought. There projects, from each 

 of its ends, those wings is in form of the blade of an axe, 

 which are common both in the Roman and Greek tablets, 

 and which would seem to have been in their origin, for the 

 purpose of receiving screws or fastenings without encroach- 

 ing on the part inscribed. This original purpose seems to 

 have been particularly kept in view in the present instance, 

 since, although the whole is in the solid, there is upon each 

 side a chain of metal, which must be the effect of studs of 

 bronze actually driven in, to give the whole tablet the ap- 

 pearance of a separate piece. The letters are well cut, and 

 in a wonderful state of preservation, owing to the shelter 

 which they receive from the projection of cornices and an 

 eastern aspect. None of our party had ever seen these cha- 

 racters before, excepting Mr Banks, who, upon comparing 

 them, found them to be exactly similar to those which he had 

 seen scratched on the rocks in the Wady Makootub, and 

 about the foot of Mount Sinai. He subsequently found a 

 passage in Diodorus Siculus, wherein he speaks of a letter 

 written by the Nabathaei of Petra to Antigonus, in the Syriac 

 character ; though this, perhaps, is no proof that the Syriac 

 was in use with them, since they may have chosen that lani 

 guage only as more familiar to the court they were addressing. 

 The tablet has five long lines, and immediately underneath a 

 single figure on a larger scale, probably the date. The very 



