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 Mousa94.
“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 freestone, 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 contributions95.
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 writers96.
“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.