238 Captains Irby and Mangles''s Account of the Neci'opolis 



desert, and especially towards Judea. Jericho is at the dis- 

 tance of three or four days/"* He adds, that one of the royal 

 lineage always resided at Petra, and had a sort of counsellor 

 attached to him, who was entitled his brother. He premise* 

 their laws and customs. 



It will be seen that these two ancient geographers, in cha- 

 racterizing the position of the city, not only agree with one 

 another, but will be found sufficiently conformable to the re- 

 ality, though strictly speaking the situation can neither be 

 called a valley with Pliny, nor a plain with Strabo ; yet it is 

 certainly both low in position and level in surface, when com- 

 pared with the crags and precipices that surround it. It is an 

 area in the bosom of a mountain, swelling into mounds and 

 intersected with gullies ; but the whole ground is of such a 

 nature as may be conveniently built upon, and has neither as- 

 cent lior descent inconveniently steep. Within the actual 

 circuit of the city there are two mounds, which seem to have 

 been entirely covered with buildings, being still strewed over 

 with a prodigious quantity of loose stones, tiles, and frag- 

 ments of ancient ware, of a very light and delicate fabric. 

 The bed of the river, taking its course to the N.W., flows be- 

 tween these two spots. The water has now sunk beneath the 

 surface, and perhaps creeps through the rubbish which ages 

 have accumulated in its bed. Great part of it seems to have 

 been arched over in the same manner as the stream at Phila- 

 delphia. In the low grounds on the left bank of the stream 

 seem to have been some of the principal edifices ; the first 

 to the N.W. from the theatre, was an archway of a florid ar- 

 chitecture, with pilasters having pannels enriched with foliage 

 in the manner of Palmyra : the whole is much ruined. The 

 arch was the introduction to a great pile of building standing 

 nearly at right angles to it. This building had a door on one 

 side ; on the three others it was decorated with a frieze of 

 triglyphs and large flowers in the metopes. Beams of wood 

 are let in at intervals between the courses of masonry, and 

 continue to this day a strong proof of the dryness of the cli- 

 mate. The front had a portico of four columns ; this part is 

 much fallen into ruins. The interior of the edifice was divid- 

 ed into three parallel qjjambers, and there seem to have been 



