The Rock City of Petra 



287 



Descriptions of the width and height 

 and the details of this monument of antiq- 

 uity may enable many to reproduce 

 for themselves some of its striking feat- 

 ures : but neither language, measure- 

 ments, nor pictures can give more than 

 a bald idea of the temple and its charm- 

 ing surroundings. The secret of its magic 

 seems to be the culmination of man's 

 best etiforts with the powers and beauties 

 of nature. 



Located at the end of a long and diffi- 

 cult journey, whether one comes from 

 the valley of the Euphrates, from Sinai, 

 from Egypt, or from any point of Syria 

 east or west of the Jordan : set in the 

 mountains of mj'stery, at the gateway 

 of the most original form of entrance 

 to any city on our planet ; carved with 

 matchless skill, after the conception of 

 some master mind ; gathering the 

 beauties of the stream, the peerless hues 

 of the sandstone, the towering cliffs, the 

 impassable ravine, the brilliant atmos- 

 phere, and the fragment of blue sky 

 above — it must have been enduring in 

 its effect upon the human mind. We saw 

 it in its desolation, a thousand years 

 after its owners had fled — tempest, 

 flood, and earthc^uake having done their 

 worst, aided by the puny hand of the 

 wandering Arab, to mar and disfigure 

 it — and we confess that its impression 

 upon our hearts and memory is death- 

 less. 



To portray the marvelous coloring of 

 these masses of sandstone and to give 

 anything like a correct view of this 

 unique feature of Petra is something we 

 attempt with misgivings. From the 

 moment we sighted the great castellated 

 mass in which the city lies hidden until 

 we took our last glimpse from the high- 

 lands above, we never ceased to wonder 

 at the indescribable beauties of the pur- 

 ples, the yellows, the crimsons, and the 

 many-hued combinations. Whether seen 

 in the gloom of the Sik, or the brilliant 

 sunshine, that seemed to kindle the 

 craggy, bristling pinnacles into colored 

 flames, they continued to inspire our sur- 

 prise. 



Travelers have vied with each other 

 in their attempts to describe these 

 beauties. After the solid colors of red, 

 purple, blue, black, white, and j^ellow, 

 the never-ending combinations are best 

 compared with watered silk or the plum- 

 age of certain birds. 



We shall be listened to if we say with 

 all soberness that "the half was never 

 told" of the effect of this many-hued 

 landscape ; for as we saw it glistening 

 with the rain drops after the showers, we 

 saw it before tlie sunrise, we saw it 

 under the noonday sun, and we noticed, 

 as perhaps no one had done before us, 

 the way in which these ancient sculp- 

 tors fixed the levels of their tombs and 

 temples and dwellings so as to make 

 most artistic use of the more beautiful 

 strata in the mountain walls, and we 

 marveled again and again, in the never- 

 ending ravines, how these ancient dwell- 

 ers consciously practiced a kind of land- 

 scape gardening, where, instead of beau- 

 tiful effects produced by banks of fading 

 flowers, all was carved from the many- 

 hued and easily wrought solid stone, 

 which took on new beauties as it 

 crumbled away. 



TH]?, GREAT THEATER 



Xot far from Pharaoh's Treasury is 

 a great theater ( see page 288) cut in 

 what may be called the Appian Way of 

 the city. It stands among some of the 

 finest tombs — a theater in the midst of 

 sepulchers. The floor of the stage is 120 

 feet in diameter. Fully 5,000 spectators 

 could have found comfort in the thirty- 

 three rows of seats. Here also the color- 

 ing of the sandstone is brilliant, and at 

 certain places in the excavation the tiers 

 of seats are literally red and purple alter- 

 nately in the native rock. Shut in on 

 nearly every side, these many-colored 

 seats filled with throngs of brilliantly 

 dressed revelers, the rocks around and 

 above crowded with the less fortunate 

 denizens of the region, what a spectacle 

 in this valley it must have been ! What 

 an eft'ect it must have produced upon 

 the wearv traveler toilin^- in from the" 



