THE RUIXS OF AXCIEXT PETRA 



279 



a wavy line of black drawn down a red 

 and purple slate, and you will have an 

 idea of this entrance to Petra. The 

 river Musa has cut a bed for itself 

 through the three or four hundred feet 

 of sandstone ridge, and into this gorge 

 we entered. Once within, all sunlight 

 vanished and, by the pale light which 

 did reach the bottom of the cleft, we saw 

 the overhanging walls painted in natiu'al 

 colors of every shade and intensity. 

 Here a ribbon of yellow; above it a 

 background of red, veined with narrow 

 bands of green, blue, and white. In 

 some places dozens of parallel strise, each 

 of a different color, bent in graceful 

 curves until they blended into some new 

 decorative scheme. High above stood 

 rock fingers forty or fifty feet in height 

 and but a few feet in diameter, their 

 tops bathed in the sun, and each of a 

 color that beggars description — some 

 banded, some solid red, golden or purple. 

 If there were not a single cutting or ruin 

 of any kind here, the natural wonders 

 of the gorge and the basin beyond would 

 more than repay any trouble taken to 

 see them. 



A hundred feet from the entrance, and 

 the flume had narrowed from twenty 

 feet to half that width and had curved, 

 so that now we could see but a short 

 distance forward, backward and above; 

 for like a glacial crevasse, the ghastly 

 smooth walls, with foothold for no living 

 thing, bent over us, shutting out the sky. 

 The effect was indescribably weird. 

 One had entered not an ordinary caiion, 

 but into the vitals of the mountains 

 themselves. Everytliing was unnatural; 

 the colors, the goblin scenery, the en- 

 gulfing walls — and we knew that 

 farther on the hills held greater and 

 more mysterious surprises in store. 



On our right as we continued inward, 

 appeared the black entrance to a tunnel. 

 A shaft twenty feet square and three 



hundred and sixty feet long had some- 

 time been hewn through the wall of the 

 gorge into another and parallel \alley. 

 Five hmidred feet beyond, the gorge 

 abruptly ended, and we emerged into 

 the l)asiii of Petra, relieved to escape 

 from the oxerpowering oppression of 

 close perpendicular walls. 



Before us, hemmed in l)y rose-colored 

 walls from two to four hiuidred feet in 

 height, lay an L-shaped valley, narrow 

 near the entrance to the sik, but widen- 

 ing after a quarter of a mile, into a plain, 

 perhaps a square mile in extent. On 

 either side of us were continuous rock 

 tombs in three or four rows, one above 

 the other, extending on the right to the 

 farther end of the basin, and on the left, 

 cut along the length of the so-called 

 "Mount of Sacrifice." This high rocky 

 butte rose several hundred feet above the 

 valley, ascended by a stupendous stair- 

 case cut in its sides. In its base was 

 hewn a gigantic amphitheatre, its tiers 

 of carmine-colored seats capable of 

 accommodating over three thousand 

 people. 



The walls of this narrow portion of the 

 basin contain the oldest tombs built by 

 the Nabatfeans, the construction of 

 which dates back to about 800 B. C. 

 The pylon-like fa9ades, twenty to thirty 

 feet high, are pierced in the center by a 

 single door, above which are steplike 

 decorations, similar to those sometimes 

 employed by the Navajo. The facades 

 of some of these step tombs extend 

 several feet out from the cliff from which 

 they are carved: others are flush with it. 

 Everything is of salmon-colored rock, 



"A rose-red city, half as old as time." 



The silence was absolute. Not a 

 living creature but ourselves disturbed 

 the quiet of the valley, which once must 

 have echoed with the plaudits of the 

 thousands seated in the amphitheatre. 



