ON PETRA, THE ROCK-HEWN CAPITAL OF IDUMHA. 141 
and the Israelites were then obliged to retrace their steps 
down the Arabah valley as far as the Wady el Ithem, near 
Elim (or Akabah), and, by this narrow defile through the 
mountains, to make their way northwards along the high 
road to Damascus, known as “ Hl Derb-el-Haj,” which runs 
at the back of the Hdomite valleys, and along the margin of 
the Arabian table-land. 
Coming down somewhat later, to the time of the Kings of 
Judah, we find that Amaziah revenged the affront shown to 
the Israelites by the terrible slaughter of the Hdomites in 
the Valley of Salt,—probably the great plain at the southern 
end of the Dead Sea; and after his victory, marching south- 
wards into the mountains, he captured the capital, then called 
“Selah” (or the Rock), synonymous with Petra, and changed 
its name to “ Joktheel,” or “‘ subdued by God ” (2 Kings xiv. 
7). According to the usual reckoning, this was -B.c. 839 years, 
from which we may infer that Petra had been the capital of 
Hdom for some time previously,—that is to say, for about a 
thousand years before the Christian era. In the centuries 
immediately preceding this era, the influence and prosperity 
of Petra appear to have expanded to such an extent that we 
find it referred to by classic authors both of Greece and Rome. 
Strabo gives a very clear description of its position and sur- 
roundings. It is described as the metropolis of the Naba- 
theans, and distant from Aila (or Hlath), at the head of the 
Arabian Gulf, ten Roman miles. (The real distance is much 
greater.) According to the same historian, Petra was situated 
in a level valley, decorated with gardens and fountains, but 
bound in by rocks on all sides; beyond its precincts lay the 
deserts, chiefly in the direction of Judza.* In the fourth 
century B.C., the city was so strong as to have successfully 
resisted Antigonus; and, at a later period, B.c. 24, also, the 
invasion of Gallus, the Roman governor of Egypt; but ulti- 
mately it fell before the Roman armies, under their general, 
Hadrian, and became a portion of the province of Syria 
during the reign of 'l'rajan, receiving the name of Hadriana, 
as shown by the coins of that period. This brings the history 
of Petra down to the commencement of the second century 
of our era; and it is probable that to this time may be 
referred many of the temples, together with the rock-hewn 
theatre, aqueducts, and other public buildings, of which the 
remzins come down to the present day. The city was the 
great .entrepot of commerce for Central Arabia. It was 
* Strabo, lib, xvi. 
