MEMOIR OF BURCKnARDT. 75 



years' standing, so fresh and well preserved in its 

 architecture as the Kazr Faraoun, which Burckhardt 

 represents as one of the most elegant remains of 

 antiquity he had found in Syria. 



Towards the lower and wider extremity of this 

 circuitous passage, its sides are sculptured and ex- 

 cavated in a most singular manner ; and these mo- 

 numents become more frequent, until at last it has 

 the appearance of a continued street of tombs. The 

 sombre perspective is here relieved by a stronger 

 light, which gradually increases until the ruins of 

 the city itself burst on the ^-iew of the astonished 

 traveller in their full grandeur; shut in on every 

 side by barren craggy precipices, from which nu- 

 merous recesses and narrow valleys branch out in 

 all directions, terminating in a sort of cid de sac 

 without any outlet. Tombs present themselves on 

 every hand, and are even intermixed with the public 

 and domestic edifices ; so that Petra has been truly 

 denominated one vast necropolis. It contains above 

 two hundred and fifty sepulchres, which are occa- 

 sionally excavated in tiers, one above another ; and 

 in places where the side of the cliflP is so perpendi- 

 cular that it seems impossible to reach the upper- 

 most, no access w^hatever being visible. 



There are besides numerous mausoleums of co- 

 losssal dimensions, and in a state of wonderful pre- 

 servation. Among these are the Kazr Ben it Faraoun^ 

 or palace of Pharaoh's daughter, and a theatre with 

 complete rows of benches, capable of containing 

 above three tliousand spectators, all cut out of the 



