of Petra^ a City excavated from the solid Rock. 2S7 



Some small pyramids hewn out of the rock are on tlie 

 summit of these heights, and we discovered a much higher 

 conical point of mountain, to whose summit there is a regular 

 spiral staircase of ascent, cut with great care and neatness, 

 the same point possibly on which we could distinguish from 

 another quarter a single pillar or obelisk. We first observed, 

 also from the heights above the temple, the vase which crowned 

 another monument to the N.W. The wide space which con- 

 stitutes the area before the temple is about fifty yards in width, 

 and about three times as long. It terminates to the south in 

 a wild precipitous cliff, rendered accessible by the steps above- 

 mentioned to the N. N. W. The defile assumes, for about three 

 hundred yards, the same features which characterize the east- 

 ern approach, with an infinite variety of tombs, both Arabian 

 and Roman, on each side. This pass conducts to the theatre, 

 and here the ruins of the city burst on the view in their full 

 grandeur, shut in on the opposite side by barren craggy pre- 

 cipices, from which numerous ravines and valleys, like those 

 we had passed, branch out in all directions. The sides of the 

 mountains, covered with an endless variety of excavated tombs 

 and private dwellings, presented altogether the most singular 

 scene we ever beheld ; and we must despair to give the reader 

 an idea of the singular eff^ect of rocks, tinted with most extra- 

 ordinary hues, whose summits present us with nature in her 

 most savage and romantic form, whilst their bases are worked 

 out in all the symmetry and regularity of art with colonnades 

 and pediments, and ranges of corridors adhering to the per- 

 pendicular surface. The short notice of Petra by Pliny is as 

 follows : " The Nabataei inhabit a city called Petra, in a 

 hollow somewhat less than two miles in circumference, sur- 

 rounded by inaccessible mountains, with a stream running 

 through it. It is distant from the town of Gaga on the coast 

 six hundred miles, and from the Persian Gulf one hundred 

 and twenty-two." — 6th Book, c. 28. Strabo says, " The capi- 

 tal of the Nabataei is called Petra. It lies in a spot which is 

 in itself level and plain, but fortified all round with a barrier 

 of rocks and precipices ; within furnished with springs of ex- 

 cellent quality for the supply of water and the irrigation of 

 gardens ; without the circuit the country is in a great measure 



VOL. VIII. NO. II. APRIL 1828. Q 



