they did not exist. In 1807, M. Seetzen, travelling under the name of
Morse, made an excursion into Arabia Petræa, as far as what he calls the
frontiers of Idumea, but he did not approach the ruins of the
capital[92]. The first traveller, who gave to modern Europe any
knowledge of this city, was Burckhardt. In this journey, made in the
summer of 1812, he encountered many dangers and difficulties; not so
much from the inaccessible nature of the country, as from the rapacity
and prejudices of the Arabs, who conceive that their ruined towns are
all filled with hidden treasures; and that European visitors come for
the sole purpose of carrying these away. “I see now clearly,” said his
guide, “that you are an infidel, who have some particular business among
the ruins of the city of our forefathers; but, depend upon it, we shall
not suffer you to take out a single para of all the treasures hidden
therein; for they are in our territory, and belong to us.” With these
difficulties, Burckhardt had little opportunity of doing more than
merely ascertaining, that such ruins as those of Petra did actually
exist. “I was particularly anxious,” says he, in his journal, under date
of August 22, “of visiting Wady Mousa, of the antiquities of which I had
heard the country people speak in terms of great admiration; and from
thence I had hoped to cross the desert in a straight line to Cairo; but
my guide was afraid of the hazards of a journey through the desert. I
therefore pretended to have made a vow to slaughter a goat in honour of
Haroun (Aaron), whose tomb I knew was situated at the extremity of the
valley; and by this stratagem I thought that I should have the means of
seeing the valley in my way to the tomb. To this my guide had nothing to
oppose; the dread of drawing upon himself, by resistance, the wrath of
Haroun, completely silenced him.” Farther on, speaking of the
antiquities of Wady Mousa, the same traveller says, “Of these I regret
that I am not able to give a very complete account. I well knew the
character of the people around me. I was without protection in the midst
of a desert, where no traveller had ever before been seen; and a close
examination of these works of the infidels, as they are called, would
have excited suspicions that I was a magician in search of treasures. I
should at least have been detained, and prevented from prosecuting my
journey to Egypt, and in all probability should have been stripped of
the little money which I possessed, and, what was infinitely more
valuable to me, of my journal-book. Future travellers may visit the spot
under the protection of an armed force; the inhabitants will become more
accustomed to the researches of strangers, and the antiquities of Wady
Mousa will then be found to rank amongst the most curious remains of
ancient art.”
We shall now give some account of the travels of Mr. Banks, and the
party by whom he was accompanied.[93] Having quitted the tents of the
Bedouins, with whom they had sojourned for a few days, they passed into
the valley of Ellasar, where they noticed some relics of antiquity,
which they conjectured were of Roman origin. Here they rested with a
tribe of Arabs. The next day they pursued their journey, partly over a
road paved with lava, and which, by its appearance, was evidently a
Roman work, and stopped that evening at Shuback, a fortress in a
commanding situation; but incapable, by decay, of any effectual defence
against European tactics.
In the neighbourhood of this place they encountered some difficulties
from the Arabs, but which, by their spirit and firmness, they overcame,
and proceeded unmolested till they reached the tents of a chieftain
called Eben Raschib, who took them under his protection. This encampment
was situated on the edge of a precipice, from which they had a
magnificent view of Mount Gebel-Nebe-Haroun, the hill of the prophet
Aaron (Mount Hor); and a distant prospect of Gebel-Tour (Mount Sinai),
was also pointed out to them. In the fore-ground, on the plain below,
they saw the tents of the hostile Arabs, who were determined to oppose
their passage to Wady Mousa, the ruins of which were also in sight.
Perceiving themselves thus as it were waylaid, they sent a messenger to
the chief, requesting permission to pass; but he returned for answer,
that they should neither cross his lands, nor taste his water. They were
in fact in the land of Edom, to the king of which Moses sent messengers
from Kadish. “Let us pass,” said he, “I pray thee, through thy country:
we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards; neither
will we drink of the waters of the well: we will go by the king’s
highway; we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we
have passed thy borders.” But Edom said unto him, “Thou shalt not pass
by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword.”—Numbers xx. 17,
18.
The travellers, after some captious negotiation, at last obtained
permission to pass; but not to drink the waters. They did not, however,
very faithfully observe this stipulation; for on reaching the borders of
a clear bright sparkling rivulet, their horse would taste the cooling
freshness of its waters; and Eben Raschib, their protector, insisted
also that the horses should be gratified. On crossing this stream they
entered on the wonders of Wady Mousa.
The first object that attracted their attention was a mausoleum, at the
entrance of which stood two colossal animals; but whether lions or
sphinxes they could not ascertain, as they were much defaced and
mutilated. They then, advancing towards the principal ruins, entered a
narrow pass, varying from fifteen to twenty feet in width, overhung by
precipices, which rose to the general height of two hundred, sometimes
reaching five hundred feet, and darkening the path by their projecting
ledges. In some places niches were sculptured in the sides of this
stupendous gallery, and here and there rude masses stood forward, that
bore a remote and mysterious resemblance to the figures of living
things, but over which, time and oblivion had drawn an inscrutable and
everlasting veil. About a mile within this pass, they rode under an
arch, which connected the two sides together; and they noticed several
earthen pipes, which had formerly distributed water.
Having continued to explore the gloomy windings of this awful corridor
for about two miles, the front of a superb temple burst on their view. A
statue of Victory, with wings, filled the centre of an aperture in the
upper part, and groups of colossal figures, representing a centaur, and
a young man, stood on each side of the lofty portico. This magnificent
structure is entirely excavated from the solid rock, and preserved from
the ravages of the weather by the projections of the overhanging
precipices. About three hundred yards beyond this temple, they met with
other astonishing excavations; and, on reaching the termination of the
rock on their left, they found an amphitheatre, which had also been
excavated, with the exception of the proscenium; and this had fallen
into ruins. On all sides the rocks were hollowed into innumerable
chambers and sepulchres; and a silent waste of desolated palaces, and
the remains of constructed edifices, filled the area to which the pass
led.
Since this, Captains Irby and Mangles, who accompanied Mr. Banks, have
published an account of their journey:—“Our defile brought us directly
down into the valley of Wady Mousa, whose name had become so familiar to
us. It is, at the point where we entered it, a stony but cultivated
valley, of moderate size, without much character or beauty, running in a
direction from east to west. A lesser hollow, sloping down to it from
the southward, meets it at an angle. At the upper end of the latter
valley is the village seen over stages of hanging fruit-grounds, which
are watered by a spring. * * Some hundred yards below this spring begin
the outskirts of the vast necropolis of Petra. * * As we advanced, the
natural features of the defile grew more and more imposing at every
step, and the excavations and sculpture more frequent on both sides,
till it presented at last a continued street of tombs, beyond which the
rocks, gradually approaching each other, seemed all at once to close
without any outlet. There is, however, one frightful chasm for the
passage of the stream, which furnishes, as it did anciently, the only
avenue to Petra on this side (the eastern).
“It is impossible,” continues Captain Irby, “to conceive any thing more
awful and sublime than the eastern approach to Petra. The width is not
more than just sufficient for the passage of two horsemen abreast; the
sides are in all parts perpendicular, varying from four hundred to seven
hundred feet in height; and they often overhang to such a degree, that,
without their absolutely meeting, the sky is intercepted, and completely
shut out for one hundred yards together, and there is little more light
than in a cavern.” This half subterranean passage is more than two miles
in length, and retains throughout the same extraordinary character.
“After passing the Khasne, the defile becomes contracted again for three
hundred yards, when suddenly the ruins of the city burst on the view in
their full grandeur, shut in on the opposite side by barren craggy
precipices, from which numerous ravines and valleys, like those we had
passed, branch out in all directions. (All of these ravines, however,
that were explored, were found to terminate in a wall of rock, admitting
of no passage outwards or inwards.) The sides of the mountains, covered
with an endless variety of excavated tombs and private dwellings,
presented altogether the most singular scene we ever beheld. We must
despair to give the reader an idea of the peculiar effect of the rocks,
tinted with most extraordinary hues, whose summits present us with
Nature in her most savage and romantic form; whilst their bases are
worked out in all the symmetry and regularity of art, with colonnades
and pediments, and ranges of corridors adhering to the perpendicular
surface.”
The next party that visited Petra were Messrs. Laborde and Linant. After
traversing Wada Araba, they entered the Wady Mousa, the “mysterious
valley of Petra.” Laborde confesses that, notwithstanding the perfect
good feeling which existed between the travellers and their conductors,
he felt an indefinable kind of fear that the grand object of their
journey—the minute investigation of Petra—might, after all, be
defeated. The “Fellahs of Wady Mousa” were yet to be reconciled to their
plan of operations.
It is a common belief amongst the Arabs, that immense treasures are
buried beneath the ruins that strew the rocky desert of Idumea; and it
is, of course, a natural inference, that the object of Europeans in
visiting the country is, by magic or superior craft, to obtain access to
those treasures, the possession of which belongs to the lords of the
soil. But in drawing near to the city, a danger, says M. Laborde, on
which the travellers had not reckoned, proved a cause of their security.
The plague had been brought from the shores of the Mediterranean into
the secluded Wady Mousa, and the Fellahs had fled from its violence. The
travellers, during their inspection of the city, were comparatively free
from annoyance: but they would have staid longer if their Arab
conductors, who were afraid of the plague, had not teased them to
return; and the fact of their residence in Petra was beginning to
spread.
Messrs. Laborde and Linant arrived in Petra from the south; and on
reaching a point from which they could see the extent of the town, they
were struck with amazement at the immense mass of ruins strewed around,
and the extensive circle of rocks inclosing the place, pierced with an
innumerable quantity of excavations. In fact, words are inadequate to
convey a clear idea of the ruins of Petra.
In Laborde’s plan of Petra, the town is exhibited as completely
encircled by huge rocks. These rocks are excavated in every variety of
form. The only entrance to the town is from the south-west, by the
windings of a narrow ravine, through which flows the river, or rather
stream, of Wady Mousa[94].
“We wound round a peak,” says M. Laborde, “surmounted by a single tree.
The view from this point exhibited a vast frightful desert; a chaotic
sea, the waves of which were petrified. Following the beaten road, we
saw before us Mount Hor, crowned by the tomb of the prophet, if we are
to credit the ancient tradition, preserved by the people of that
country. Several large and ruinous excavations, which are seen in the
way, may arrest the attention of a traveller who is interested by such
objects, and has no notion of those, still concealed from his view by
the curtain of rocks which extends before him; but at length the rock
leads him to the heights above one more ravine; whence he discovers
within his horizon the most singular spectacle, the most enchanting
picture, which Nature has wrought in her grandest mood of creation;
which men, influenced by the vainest dreams of ambition, have yet
bequeathed to the generations that were to follow them. At Palmyra,
Nature renders the works of man insignificant by her own immensity and
her boundless horizon, within which some hundreds of columns seem
entirely lost. Here, on the contrary, she seems delighted to set, in her
most noble frame-work, his productions, which aspire, and not
unsuccessfully, to harmonize with her own majestic, yet fantastic,
appearance. The spectator hesitates for a moment, as to which of the two
he is the more impelled to admire; whether he is to accord the
preference to Nature, who invites his attention to her matchless girdle
of rocks, wondrous as well for their colour as their forms; or to the
men who feared not to mingle the works of their genius with such
splendid efforts of creative power.”
We now give an abstract of what has been written of this city, mainly
taken from a very intelligent periodical journal, published at Edinburgh
(Chambers’s Journal).
Nearly at the spot where the defile opens into the site of the city, one
excavation in the site of the pass arrests the attention of the
traveller. This is a vast circular theatre hewn out of the solid rock,
consisting of thirty-three seats of stone sloping upwards, and
surmounted, and in some degree sheltered, by the rocks above. The
countless tombs in the immediate vicinity of this ruined edifice led M.
Laborde to remark on the extraordinary taste of the people of Petra, in
selecting a place of amusement, encircled on all sides by the mansions
and memorials of death!
It is unnecessary to enter into a minute description of the excavated
tombs and sepulchres, studding the rocky walls around Petra. The basis
of the architecture, in almost all cases, is Grecian, mingled with
Roman; though in many instances a style is apparent, which must be
regarded as Egyptian, or rather the native style of Petra. Many of the
chambers within the tombs are so immense, that their real character
might be doubted; were it not for the recesses they contain, destined,
it is plain, for the reception of bodies. How enormous must have been
the labour and expense, necessary for the excavation of these
sepulchres, some of which are large enough to stable the horses of a
whole tribe of Arabs! It is impossible to conceive that such
resting-places could have been appropriated to any other persons than
rulers or rich men, and great, indeed, as Mr. Burckhardt remarks, “must
have been the opulence of a city, which could dedicate such monuments to
the memory of its rulers.” Some of the finest mausoleums, as we have
already seen, are not in the main valley, but in the ravines leading
from it, where their multiplicity is beyond conception. In a ravine on
the north-west, M. Laborde beheld one, called by the natives El-Deir, or
the Convent, of much larger dimensions than the Khasne, and, like it,
sculptured out of the rock, though not in a style so perfect.
As the visitor advances into the area, he beholds in front of him one of
the most splendid and beautiful objects in or around Petra, and what may
justly be called one of the wonders of antiquity. This is the front of
a great temple, nearly sixty-five feet in height, excavated from the
solid rock, and embellished with the richest architectural decorations,
all in the finest state of preservation. Six pillars, thirty-five feet
high, with Corinthian capitals, support an ornamented pediment, above
which stand six smaller pillars, the centre pair crowned by a vase, and
surrounded by statues and other ornaments. Mere description can do no
justice to this building. Near it stands a magnificent triumphal arch.
This temple is termed by the Arabs “_Khasne Pharaon_,”—Pharaoh’s
treasure; from their supposition that here are hidden those stores which
they have vainly sought for elsewhere. In the sarcastic words of M.
Laborde, “It was quite in accordance with their character, after having
fruitlessly spoiled the monuments inclosed in the tombs, to seek the
spot where the constructor of such magnificent edifices had deposited
his treasure. That spot they supposed they had found at last—it was the
urn which may be distinguished on the top of the monument. This must
contain all the riches of the great king;—but, unhappily, it is out of
their reach, and only taunts their desire. Consequently, each time that
they pass through the ravine, they stop an instant, fire at the urn, and
endeavour to break it, in the hope of bringing it down and securing the
treasure. Their efforts are fruitless; and they retire murmuring against
the king of Giants, who has so adroitly placed his treasure 120 feet
above their reach.”
The temple is hewn in an enormous and compact block of free-stone, which
is lightly coloured with oxide of iron. Its high state of preservation
is owing to the shelter which the surrounding rocks afford it against
the wind, and also in preserving the roof from the rain. The only traces
of deterioration are in the statues at the base of the column, which
has been produced by the humidity undermining the parts most in relief,
or nearest to the ground. To the same cause may be attributed the fall
of one of the columns which was attached to the front. Had the structure
been built instead of being hewn, the fall of this column would have
dragged down the entire building. As it is, it merely occasions a void,
which does not destroy the effect of the whole. “It has even been
useful,” says M. Laborde, “in so far as it enabled us, by taking its
dimensions, to ascertain the probable height of the temple, which it
would otherwise have been impossible to do with precision.” He calls the
temple “one of the wonders of antiquity,” and apologises for the
expression in the following manner:—“We are apt, doubtless, to charge
the traveller with exaggeration who endeavours, by high-sounding
eulogiums, to enhance the merit of his fatigues, or the value of his
labours: but here, at least, plates designed with care will establish
the truth of a description which might otherwise appear extravagant.”
The interior of the temple does not fulfil the expectations, created by
the magnificence of the exterior. Several steps conduct to a room, the
door of which is perceived under the peristyle. “Although the chamber is
hewn regularly, and is in good proportion, the walls are rough, its
doors lead to nothing, and the entire appears to have been abandoned
while the work was yet in progress. There are two lateral chambers, one
of which is irregular, and the other presents two apertures, which seem
to have been hewn for two coffins.”
Captain Irby speaks of this temple in the following manner: “The
position is one of the most beautiful that could be imagined for the
front of a great temple, the richness and exquisite finish of whose
decorations offer a most remarkable contrast to the savage scenery that
surrounds it. It is of a very lofty proportion, the elevation comprising
two stories. The taste is not exactly to be commended; but many of the
details and ornaments, and the size and proportion of the great doorway
especially, to which there are five steps of ascent from the portico,
are very noble. No part is built, the whole being purely a work of
excavation; and its minutest embellishments, wherever the hand of man
has not purposely effaced and obliterated them, are so perfect, that it
may be doubted whether any work of the ancients, excepting, perhaps,
some on the banks of the Nile, have come down to our time so little
injured by the lapse of ages. There is, in fact, scarcely a building of
forty years’ standing in England so well preserved in the greater part
of its architectural decorations. Of the larger members of the
architecture nothing is deficient, excepting a single column of the
portico; the statues are numerous and colossal.”
The brook of Wady Mousa, after leaving the eastern defile by which it
entered, passes directly across the valley, and makes its exit by a
rocky ravine on the west, almost impassable by the foot of man. On the
banks of this stream are situated the principal ruins of the city.
There, at least, are found those in chief preservation—for, properly
speaking, the whole valley may be said to be covered with ruins.
The remains of paved-ways, bridges, and other structures, may still be
seen among the other ruins of the valley. Not the least interesting
object, observable in the vale, is the aqueduct which is continued from
the eastern approach along the face of the rocks constituting the
eastern wall of this city. This aqueduct is partly hewn and partly
built, and is yet in a very perfect condition.
The only inscriptions, hitherto discovered at Petra, are two which M.
Laborde met with on tombs. One of these, in Greek characters, was so
much mutilated as to be unreadable, and the other, a Latin one, notified
that a certain Roman consul died at Petra, when governor of Arabia.
The only living being found residing in the immediate neighbourhood of
the ruins, with the exception of the reptiles that infest the
excavations, was a decrepit old man, who had lived for forty years on
the top of Mount Hor, an eminence at the west of Petra, where a tomb,
said to be that of Aaron, is seen. The wandering Arabs, who revere the
Jewish traditions, hold this place as sacred, and support its old
guardian by occasional pilgrimages and contributions[95].
For want of space we must here close our account; referring for a more
enlarged knowledge of this celebrated “city of the desert,” to the
travels of Burckhardt, Captains Irby and Mangles, and MM. Laborde and
Linant. The following references lead to some of the passages, in which
the fate of this city was foretold by the sacred writers[96].
“I will stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and
beast from it, and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of
Dedan shall fall by the sword. And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom
by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according
to mine anger, and according to my fury, and they shall know my
vengeance, saith the Lord God.”—Ezekiel, xxv. 13, 14.
“Say unto it, thus saith the Lord God, behold, O Mount Seir, I am
against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I
will make thee most desolate, I will lay thy cities waste, and thou
shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Because
thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the
children of Israel, by the force of the sword, in the time of their
calamity.”—Ezekiel, xxxv. 3, 4.
“The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it, the owl also and the
raven shall dwell in it, and he shall stretch out upon it the line of
confusion, and the stones of emptiness. The thorns shall come up in
her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof, and it
shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.”—Isaiah,
xxxiv. 11, 13.
“And Edom shall be a desolation; every one, that goeth by it, shall
be astonished, and shall hiss at the plagues thereof.”—Jeremiah,
xlix. 17.
“And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a
flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in
them, and devour them, and there shall not be any remaining of the
house of Esau.”—Obadiah, 18.
NO. XVI.—PHIGALIA.
This was a town of Arcadia, called after Phigalus. Bacchus and Diana
had each a temple there, and the public places were adorned with the
statues of illustrious natives. “In the forum,” says Anacharsis, “is
a statue which might serve for the history of the arts. The feet are
almost joined, and the pendant hands are fastened close to the sides
and thighs; for in this manner were statues formerly sculptured in
Greece, and thus they are still in Egypt. It was erected for the
athlete Arrhacion, who gained one of the prizes in the 52nd, 53rd, and
54th Olympiads. We may hence conclude that, two centuries before our
time, many statuaries still servilely followed the Egyptian taste.”