| Show rahe therose P INE Z reci I 1 ze C I 1 catig er 0 q 32 e alem 6 I 1 sea P 0 bunah Tu nAH we pi V ma 0 ab 10 rt D LU suez Q ED 0 li caa r Q peta sebah r E h sherad Shera 4 aebel jebel aru Z suez E G y P T r a N A 1 of 0 0 3 4 P e N 00 A R A B 0 0 so I 1 7 ILES petra ie Is off the beaten path old petra now accessible to travelers after many centuries of oblivion prepared by nat onal geography Geo graph e society D C I 1 I 1 ETRA silent city of the fort P gotten past halfway between the dead sea and the gulf of ababa exerts a magic spell upon the mi minds ads of those fortunate enough to know it its single and weid weird approach through a deep rock cleft more than a mile long its temples numbering nearly a thousand cut into the living rock of stupendous cliffs and showing babylonian egyptian greek and roman influence its high places courts libation basins and altars where the ancients worshiped its abaz ing color the work of nature lavish with ocher and all shades of red all these are ous enthralling the rose red city half as 0 old id as time has a history that began long before histories were written near it have been found worked flints of the late period millenna nul mil lenni urns before recorded dates it s first written history is found in the bible for the land about it was mount seir of old now esh shera home of the horaites cave dwellers whose progenitor was hon hori the grandson of seir these horaites are first mentioned at the time of abraham in connection with the subjugation of the land by chedor lacomer for centuries petra was a rich caravan city a veritable crossroads of the ancient world the arabian peninsula was a network of caravan routes over which passed the prod acts of africa arabia and india to the valley of the nile palestine phoenicia and the euphrates tigris valley deserted when borne rome fell goods were brought to petra for storage and for trans shipment in every direction so important was the city that the romans built two roads to tap its wealth when rome fell however its doom was sealed abandoned save for a few desert tribesmen who lived miserably in its caves a as s some of them still live petra passed from the notice of the outside world remaining in oblivion for more than a thousand years in 1812 the swiss traveler john lewis burckhardt disguised as a bedouin sheik reached it and re turned to tell of its mysteries it had then become sacred ground to the arabs and danger menaced any infidel who approached it in the century after burckhardt few explorers attempted to visit it not indeed until after the world war was it accessible to any save the most intrepid and even n now ow vis igors cannot enter it save under protection of armed guards with a comfortable camp for tion of guests during the summer months petra at last is open to se rious travelers the trip from jerusalem to petra and back once required about a month of arduous caravan travel through country infested with law less bedouins construction of the mecca railway from damascus to the sacred city of medina was a first step toward opening the country and later a highway from jerusa lem to ma me an and a smooth dirt road from ma an to elji eiji brought motor vehicles within two miles of the ancient city airplanes too now carry passengers to ma an bound cor for petra when the british cleared the way for automobiles between ma an and eli elji the bedouins rose in open re volt complaining that the road would deprive them of their income erom from renting saddle animals to petra visitors warfare ensued several persons of both s sides ides losing their lives after he the government had crushed the re bellion by armed force the bed bouins received assurance that the road would not be extended beyond eli eiji and that their horses and mules would be hired under govern ment supervision for the last part of the journey thus the bedouins have hav e kept b modern transportation from actually infringing ing on the silence of long ago and preserved for petra a measure of its isolation flow how to reach the ruins rains however you travel to petra whether by railroad from damascus a method almost disused or by car from jerusalem the most practical way or by air the latest innovation all routes converge on ma an a thriving abode village girdled with walled gardens of palms figs and vegetables and surrounded by flat chalky white desert there is an english school here and visitors are often amazed to find that many of the arab youths understand and speak english from maan you drive northwest by car passing the spring of am musa to elji eiji here a happy crowd of bedouins with emaciated riding horses and pack mules await your arrival descending first by slippery trails trans over limestone rock you follow the bed of wadi musa to a mighty barrier the eastern range of the red sandstone mountains that enclose petra wadi musa deepens it seems that you are entering a cul de sac but here nature has rent the range asunder cutting a narrow opening for this long slit the arabs have coined the name Es a cleft through it the fountain and flood waters flow in winter and after traversing the precincts of petra city find their way into wadi el araba by another greater gorge the wadi es through bab es approaching the gateway bab es you pass through a small suburb of petra without the precincts of the fortified city this was a city of the dead as was most of what is left of petra objects of interest are tombs of the pylon type cut from the solid rock but unlike the facade monuments of petra proper blocked out to stand apart as buildings here too are scattered white whit e s sandstone and stone hummocks rock domes into which large numbers of small chambers have been cut without faces M many any of like character are found on the less accessible mountain tops they are believed to be the troglodyte homes of ancient people who lived on mount seir before the descendants of esau made edom of it the is 6 feet long as the row crow flies and considerably longer as it winds once it was all paved and channels were cut into its precipitous cip itous sides to lead the spring water into the city it is 20 feet wide in its narrowest parts and expands to not more than two or three times this dimension its sides are stupendous making men mere ants by comparison in no place may you see far ahead crooks and corners preventing A streak of blue sky like a twisted ribbon is all that is visible of the heavens your horses sup slip over the great boulders that choke this ancient avenue your bedouins chanting their weary and melancholy notes after ini minutes ot of this bewitching seclusion you strain your eyes for a first glimpse of the vision you know awaits you even though you watch it bursts upon you as a surprise the ends abruptly in a cross gorge from the face of the cliff opposite the mouth el khazna has been out a to an unknown deity it peeps at you at first you see a little more and then it bursts upon you in a all 11 its beauty this cross canyon has been called the outer the name lower may fit it better its walls are equally precipitous to the south its valley floor rises abruptly to the mountain top on which the great high place of sacrifice is located steps have been cut at no little expenditure of energy to make easy the ascent of the worshiper to he the north the outer expands pening opening into the petra basin |
