MOST BEAUTIFUL OF THE ROCK-HEWN MONUMENTS OF PETRA 

 El Khazneh, or "The Treasury" (named by Arabs), cut in a vast rose-colored cliff opposite the approach to 

 Petra, has been so protected from wind and rain by overhanging rocks through the centuries, that it looks like a 

 building recently finished. It vras probably built about 106 A. D., when this section of Arabia was a part of the 

 Roman Empire. Great must have been the opulence of Petra — always a safe retreat and impregnable storehouse 

 for caravans of precious goods — when she could dedicate sumptuous monuments like El Khazneh to her rulers. 

 We were led to visit the ruins of mysterious Petra by the chance remarks of a French archaeologist; we 

 hastened to Beyrout and Damascus, then to El Maan, four hundred miles southward. Here we were in Arabia, 

 and with Syrian interpreter and caravan of .soldiers soon started into the desert and toward the purple 

 mountains where Petra was hidden 

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