The Rock City of Petra 



29 1 



burning sands of the desert, along the 

 shadows of the marvelous Sik, past the 

 vision of the Treasury, and into the 

 widening gorge that resounded with the 

 shouts of the revelers, in the days of its 

 ancient glory. 



The eastern wall of the valley, near 

 the entrance, rises to a height of more 

 than five hundred feet. For a length 

 of a thousand feet the face of the cliff 

 is carved and honeycombed with exca- 

 vations to a height of three hundred 

 feet above the floor of the valle}'. 



Here are found some of the most im- 

 pressive ruins in the city. The Urn tomb 

 in the center has in the rock behind it a 

 room over 60 feet square, whose beauti- 

 fully colored ceiling can be compared to 

 a great storm in the heavens. The Corin- 

 thian tomb and temple ( see p. 289 ) are 

 among the largest and most beautifully 

 colored monuments in any of the walls. 



The Deir is reached by one of the 

 great ravines up which winds a path and 

 stairway until an elevation of 700 feet 

 is attained. A small plateau opening 

 toward the south gives an extended view 

 of Mount Hor and all the southern end 

 of the Dead Sea cavity. ■ The spot is 

 wholly inaccessible except by the one 

 rocky stairway and winding path. 



The Deir is carved from the side of 

 a mountain top, but not protected by anv 

 overhanging mass. It is larger than the 

 Treasury, but not nearly so fine in color- 

 ing or design. It is impressive in its 

 size and its surroundings, but cannot 

 be called beautiful. 



Finalh-, if vou will remember that 



originally the whole valley, from its be- 

 ginning at the door of the Sik until its 

 exit among the fissures at the southern 

 end of the Dead vSea, is one huge exca- 

 vation made by the powers of nature, the 

 torrent and the earthquake ; and that the 

 hand of time, the frost, the heat, and the 

 tempest have been bus}- through the ages 

 cracking, smoothing, chiseling mountain 

 top, deep ravine, and towering cliff into 

 a myriad of fantastic forms, and that 

 the subtler, silent agencies of Nature's 

 alchemy have been added the most bril- 

 liant hues to moldering sandstone strata, 

 yoa cannot but he charmed and amazed 

 at the result of her handiwork. 



Then when }'ou enter the city by the 

 winding valley of the Sik, gaze at the 

 stupendous walls of rock which close 

 the valley and encircle this ancient habi- 

 tation, and mark how man himself, but 

 an imitator of Xature, has adorned the 

 winding bases of these encircling walls 

 with all the beauty of architecture ami 

 art — with temple, tomb and palace, col- 

 umn, portico and pediment — while the 

 mountain summits present Nature in her 

 wildest and most savage forms, the en- 

 chantment will be complete, and among 

 the ineffaceable impressions of your soul 

 will be the memories of this silent, beau- 

 tiful "rose-red city half as old as time."''' 



* For further information on this remarkable 

 city the reader is referred to The Jordan 1 'alley 

 and Pctra. By William Libbey, Sc. D., and 

 Franklin E. Ho.skins, D.D. Two volumes. 

 Vol. I, XV and 353 pp. and 74 illustrations. 

 Vol. II. VITI and 380 pp. and 85 illustrations, 

 7 appendices, index, and map. G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons, New York, 1905. 



