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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



public buildings in Petra, the interior of 

 the Deir consists of a rectangular 

 chamber, l)are of any ornamentation or 

 columns, its sole opening consisting of a 

 battered doorway al)out twenty feet 

 high. A hundred feet from the door, 

 in front of the temple, is a large altar, 

 cut from a natural knol) of rock some 

 twenty feet high. Leading up to this is 

 a staircase of small dimensions, evidently 

 intended for the use of the priests only. 

 Beyond the altar lies a chasm se\eral 

 hundred feet in depth, perhaps fifty feet 

 wide, with perpendicular sides, while on 

 the opposite side is a wall of yellow, 

 rising to a height of a hundred feet, its 

 topmost ridge ornamented with cream- 

 colored domes resembling giant beehives. 



Near our headquarters was a small 

 tomb consisting of a rectangular cham- 

 ber, hollowed in rock of a pinkish hue, 

 veined with white lines. The walls of 

 this room were covered with hundrefls of 

 recesses some six inches square, divided 

 from one another by walls an inch or so 

 in thickness. The celhdar construction 

 has given to this tomb the name " colum- 

 barium," or pigeonhole tomb. 



Only a few yards away from the 

 columbarium was an unfinished tomb, 

 which illustrated the method used in 

 constructing the many fa(,'ades. First a 

 vertical cliff of the requisite height was 

 chosen, and a ladder of staggered holes 

 cut in its face. By means of this re- 

 cessed l-adder, bronze or iron l)ars were 

 driven into the cliff in a horizontal line, 

 a few feet below the level fixed for the 

 highest part of the faqade. Supported 

 by these bars, workmen then cut into 

 the rock, forming a deep horizontal 

 gallery, extending the width of the in- 

 tended construction. This recess once 

 cut, numerous workmen could enter it 

 and, continually cutting down its floor, 

 scarp the face of the cliff to a plane 

 surface. They would then deepen the 



upper gallery and, in a like manner, 

 always cutting downward, complete the 

 actual carving, arriving eventually at 

 the base. In this way the use of scaffold- 

 ing was eliminated. Of this unfinished 

 tomb, the scarping of the rock face, the 

 initial gallery, and the rough capitals of 

 four columns are alone completed. 



On the north wall of the basin is a 

 series of the largest and finest facades in 

 Petra, excelled in workmanship, size and 

 beauty only by the Khazneh and the 

 Deir. The "tomb with the urn," built 

 on the same lines as the Khazneh, the 

 " tomb with the portico," and the " three- 

 storied toml)" are all works of great 

 magnitude. The last mentioned has an 

 interior room over one hundred and 

 twenty feet scpiare, which, like the rest 

 of these chambers, is inhabited during 

 the rainy season by tribes of nomads, 

 together with their cattle, sheep and 

 goats. We were in Petra but a few days 

 in advance of the time when the dead 

 city is infested with these desert peoples. 



The facades of this north wall show 

 many kinds of architectiu-e: the Naba- 

 tfean, which is the oldest and reminiscent 

 of the Egyptian style; pure Greek, the 

 result of Greek influence in the reign of 

 King Aretas, 100 B. C; the best of 

 Roman designs, such as the Khazneh, 

 and also, later still in point of time, a 

 hybrid architecture, partly Greek and 

 partly Roman, of which the Deir is a 

 fine example. 



The "Mount of Sacrifice," which 

 dominates the basin, stands at its east- 

 ern extremity, near the defile which 

 furnishes the sole entrance to Petra. 

 Its color is carmine at the l)ase, changing 

 to pin-ple and yellow toward the sum- 

 mit. The northern base was originally 

 honeycombed with tombs, but many of 

 these were totally removed and others 

 rendered mere frontless caves by the 

 excavation necessarv to build the theatre. 



