EL DEIR. 
The general view of Petra strikes every traveller with admiration. Even the least 
enthusiastic break out into the language of astonishment But an artist is the most 
natiu-al describer of the picturesque, and Mr. Roberts’s pen brings the chief objects 
before the eye with a clearness and truth only second to his pencil. The following are 
extracts from his Journal:— 
“March 6, 1839. We encamped in the centre of this extraordinary City. I did not 
expect to be much surprised at Petra, after seeing Thebes. But the whole is far beyond 
any idea which I had formed of it, in both magnitude and situation. The entire valley is 
strewed with ruins; the architecture a combination of the Egyptian with the Greek and 
Roman. Its beauty grew on the eye. . . . 
“ I am more and more bewildered with the aspect of this extraordinary City. Not only 
the City, which must be two miles in length by nearly the same in breadth, but every 
ravine has been inhabited, even to the tops of the mountains. The valley has been filled 
up with public buildings, temples, triumphal arches, and bridges, all of which, with the 
exception of one triumphal arch and one temple, are prostrate. Even of this temple the 
portico has fallen. Those of the buildings (or rather excavations in the rock) which remain 
are rent by time, excepting the Khasne, which probably owes its preservation to the 
narrowness of the defile, and the deep recess in which it is situated. . . . 
“ To-day, accompanied by a guard of Arabs, we wound our way up a steep ravine; a 
broken staircase extending the whole ascent, which was nearly a mile. We at length 
reached the object of our journey, which was a building rarely visited, called El Deir 
(the Convent). It is hewn out of the face of the rock, and is of greater magnitude than the 
Khasne, being upwards of 100 feet in height. The capitals of the columns and the 
cornices are in the rough block, the details never having been finished. In the interior, 
facing the entrance, is a recess, with a platform ascended by two flights of steps, in the 
centre of which once stood an Altar, the place where it joined the wall being distinctly 
visible; and over it is painted a Cross, showing that it has been used as a Christian 
Church. 
“ Opposite, and on the summit of a high rock, are the ruins of what has been a 
magnificent temple; the bases of the portico and colonnade on each side remain, with 
the Adytum, hewn out of the solid rock, and containing a beautiful ornamented recess. 
In a vault underneath, is a capital of one of the columns, in white marble, and in the 
best taste. 
“ El Deir stands a thousand feet above the level of the City. The view from this spot 
is magnificent, commanding a great extent of the valley of El Ghor; Mount Hor, with the 
supposed Tomb of Aaron crowning its summit; and the whole of the defile leading to the 
edifice, which is of the most romantic description, winding among perpendicular rocks, 
