74 MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 



water to the gardens and houses in the higher parts 

 of the city. The solitude is disturbed by the inces- 

 sant screaming of eagles, hawks, owls, and ravens, 

 who have their habitation among the rocks above, 

 and naturally take the alarm when their lonely 

 abodes are invaded by strangers. 



At every step the scenery discovers more and 

 more remarkable features. About half-way through 

 there is a single spot where the area of the ravine 

 spreads a little, and sweeps into a kind of irregular 

 circle. Here was the site of a very extraordinary 

 work of art, to which the Arabs give the name of 

 Kazr Faraoun, the castle or palace of Pharaoh, al- 

 though it resembles more the sepulchre than the 

 residence of a prince. The front of this curious 

 mausoleum rises in several stories to the height of 

 sixty or seventy feet, ornamented with columns, 

 rich friezes, pediments, and large figures of horses 

 and men. The interior consists of a large chamber, 

 the walls and roof of which are quite smooth, and 

 without any decoration. No part of this stupend- 

 ous temple is built, the whole being hewn from the 

 solid rock, which is sand-stone of a pale rose-colour; 

 it looks as if newly from the chisel, without the 

 tints or weather-stains of age ; and its minutest 

 embellishments, wherever the hand of man has not 

 effaced them, are so perfect, that it may be doubted 

 w r hether any work of the ancients, except perhaps 

 on the banks of the Nile, has survived with so 

 little injury from the lapse of time. There is 

 scarcely a building in our own country, of forty 



