MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 77 



stored the precious commodities of the East. It 

 formed the grand entrepot between Palestine and 

 Egypt, and there is little doubt that the company 

 of Ishmaelites, with their camels bearing spicery, 

 balm, and myrrh, to whom Joseph was sold by his 

 brethern, were the regular caravan that visited its 

 markets. The famous soothsayer Balaam was a 

 native of this place, whose inhabitants, even at that 

 age, were renowned for their learning, their oracu- 

 lar temple, and their skill in augury. It must have 

 been the impregnable nature of the situation that 

 rendered it so celebrated as a commercial depot; 

 for while it admitted of easy access to beasts of 

 burden, it might defy the attacks of robbers or ene- 

 mies, however formidable. 



When the Romans conquered Syria, some of their 

 ablest generals and emperors, amongst whom were 

 Lucullus, Pompey, Severus, and Trajan, failed in 

 their attempts to storm Petra. With the fall of 

 that power in the East, and the new channels 

 which were opened up for trade, the prosperity of 

 this famous city declined, until its very position 

 became unknown, and its name almost forgotten in 

 Europe. Its once crowded marts ceased to be the 

 store-house of nations, and until Burckhardt visited 

 in 1812, the obscurity of a thousand years had 

 covered its ruins. Since that time the travellers 

 Irby, Mangles, Bankes, Legh, &c. have given 

 more copious descriptions of these interesting relics ; 

 and within these few years, the most remarkable 

 of them have been preserved in the drawings taken 



