unite in the northeast part of the area, having between them a promontory of red sandstone, in which are tombs. Further west are other small Wadys. Here, at the northeast corner, the road from near Dibdiba comes in, by which our servants entered; and here, or somewhere in this quarter, must be the tomb described by Irby and Mangles, as having an inscription in the unknown Sinaitic character; and also that with a Latin inscription, discovered by Laborde.

Towards the south, the ascent from the area of the city is steeper, and somewhat greater, perhaps a hundred feet. It leads up to a high plain of table land, extending westward around the end of the western cliff (which here terminates) to Mount Hor or Jebel Neby Hârûn. This plain bears the name of Sutth Hârûn, "Aaron's Plains," corresponding to the Sutûh Beida, "White Plains," on the north of Wady Musa. At the southwest corner of the area of the city, a path passes out, ascending a long narrow Wady lined with tombs, to this terrace. It then leads along the southern foot of Mount Hor, and dividing further on, one branch descends to the 'Arabah towards the left through Wady Abu Kusheibeh, and so to 'Akabah; while the other goes more towards the right, and descends through Wady er-Rubâ'y on the way to Hebron. At the foot of this latter pass, according to our Arabs, there is a small spring of good water, called et-Taiyibeh.

In looking at the wonders of this ancient city, one is at a loss, whether most to admire the wildness of the position and natural scenery, or the taste and skill with which it was fashioned into a secure retreat, and adorned with splendid structures, chiefly for the dead. The most striking feature of the place consists, not in the fact that there are occasional excavations and sculptures like those above described; but in the innumerable multitude of such excavations, along the whole extent of perpendicular rocks adjacent to the main area, and in all the lateral valleys and chasms; the entrances of very many of which are variously, richly, and often fantastically decorated, with every imaginable order and style of architecture. The cliffs upon the east and west present the largest and most continuous surfaces; and here the tombs are most numerous. But the spur from the eastern cliffs formed by the Wady below the Khŭzneh, as well as other smaller spurs and promontories and single groups of rocks, both in the north and south, are also occupied in like manner. All. these sepulchres of course looked down upon the city of the living; but others, again, are found in retired dells and secret

'See at the end of Note XIX, end of Vol. I.

2

This name is not quite certain. La

borde writes it strangely enough "Pabouchèbe;" although the sound of p does not exist in the Arabic language.

chasms, or sometimes among the heights on either side, to which flights of steps cut in the rock lead up in several places. Thus the Deir lies high up among the cliffs of the western ridge, more than half an hour distant from the area of the city.

The most conspicuous of all the monuments, next to the Khüzneh and Deir, are those along the eastern cliffs north of the theatre. Here towards the north is the immense façade with three rows of columns one above another; then the Corinthian tomb depicted by Laborde; and further south, it would seem, the large tomb described by Irby and Mangles, with Doric porticos and ornaments, and arched substructions in front. The interior of this last, according to the same travellers, consists of one large and lofty chamber, which in later ages was converted into a Christian church; having three recesses for altars at the further end; while an inscription in red paint, near an angle, records the date of the consecration.'

The rock in which all these monuments are sculptured, is the soft reddish sandstone of this whole district; a formation which has been already described as resting upon lower masses of porphyry, and which appears to extend to a great distance both north and south. The forms of the cliffs are often exceedingly irregular and grotesque. The highest, and indeed the only high point, of all the sandstone tract, is Mount Hor. The softness of the stone afforded great facilities for excavating the sepulchres and sculpturing their ornamental parts; but the same cause has operated against their preservation, except where sheltered from exposure. The Khüzneh itself has been thus wonderfully preserved, only by the overhanging vault of rock which shields it.

Not the least remarkable circumstance in the peculiarities of this singular spot, is the colour of the rocks. They present not a dead mass of dull monotonous red; but an endless variety of bright and living hues, from the deepest crimson to the softest pink, verging also sometimes to orange and yellow. These varying shades are often distinctly marked by waving lines, imparting to the surface of the rock a succession of brilliant and changing teints, like the hues of watered silk, and adding greatly to the imposing effect of the sculptured monuments. Indeed it would be impossible "to give to the reader an idea of the singular effect of rocks, teinted with the 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,

Irby and Mangles' Travels p. 429-431. [132.] To my great regret I was not able to visit and exainine this tomb.

and ranges of corridors adhering to their perpendicular surface." This play of colours is strikingly exhibited, along the paths leading to the Deir, and to Mount Hor.

In the midst of the variety of architecture, which here as tonishes the spectator, two styles are obviously predominant, the Egyptian and the Roman-Greek; or rather, it is the mixture and union of these two, which here constitutes the prevailing style. The former is principally seen in the body or masses of the façades; where the truncated pyramidal forms, and the slightly tapering fronts and sides, remind one continually of the majestic portals and propyla of the Theban temples. The more classic orders of Greece and Rome are conspicuous in the columns and other ornaments; and prevail also throughout in some of the more important monuments. But even here all is florid and overloaded, indicating a later age and a degenerate taste; when a feeling of the beautiful still remained, but without the simplicity of nature. This amalgamation of styles may be accounted for, by the prevalence, first of the Roman influence and then of the Roman dominion, which penetrated hither both by way of Asia Minor and Syria, and also from Egypt. This took place, as we know, about the Christian era; and to that period and the subsequent centuries, are probably to be ascribed the architectural skill and monuments, on which strangers now gaze with surprise and wonder.

An interesting question, which occupied much of our attention on the spot, was, How far these excavations are to be regarded merely as sepulchres? and whether any of them were probably intended as abodes for the living? I had formerly received the impression, that very many of them were to be so considered; and indeed, that a great portion of the ancient city had been composed of such dwellings "in the clefts of the rocks." But after attentive observation, we could perceive no traces of any such design. The smaller and unornamented excavations, are entirely similar to the numerous sepulchres around Jerusalem; and the one have no more the appearance of having been intended as dwellings than the other. Those with ornamental façades have in general a like character within; many of them have niches for dead bodies; and even such as have not this decisive mark, exhibit nevertheless no trace of having been constructed for habitations. At a later period, indeed, they may not improbably have been thus used; just as the tombs at Thebes and those in the village of Siloam, are now converted into dwellings.

3

'Irby and Mangles p. 423. [129 sq.] * Jer. 49, 16.

1 The interior of all these tombs is com

paratively very small. The caverns in the country towards Damascus, which were never tombs, but always dwellings, are

The elegance of their exterior decoration, affords no ground for supposing the most of these monuments to have been other than tombs. The abodes of the dead were regarded in Egypt, and also in Palestine, with profound veneration; and were constructed with even greater pomp and splendour than the habitations of the living. Witness the tomb of Helena at Jerusalem, and the still more magnificent ones at Thebes; to say nothing of the mighty pyramids, erected apparently each as the sepulchre of a single monarch.'-Nor is there any necessity for the supposition, that these excavations were intended in part as dwellings for the inhabitants of the place. The widely spread ruins which are visible, attest, as we have seen, that a large and extensive city of houses built of stone once occupied this spot; and the sepulchres round about are comparatively less numerous, than those which in like manner skirt the sites of ancient Thebes and Memphis. The city which stood here, was of itself built "in the clefts of the rocks;" without the necessity of our looking for single dwellings in such a situation.

Yet not all these structures, I think, were sepulchral; some of the larger and more splendid were more probably temples of the gods. The facility and beauty with which the ornamented façades of monuments could be sculptured in the rock, might easily suggest the idea of constructing fanes for the gods in like manner; and such excavated temples were not unknown in Egypt. Hence the site of the beautiful Khüzneh was selected, directly opposite to the grand entrance from the east; the character of its front is decidedly that of a temple. To the same class probably belong some of the larger and more conspicuous excavations in the eastern cliffs; especially the one described by Irby and Mangles, as having arched substructions built up in front, and afterwards used as a Christian church. The Deir too, as we shall see, has similar features, and appears also to have been transformed into a church. Nothing would be more natural, under the circumstances, than to convert heathen temples of this kind into Christian sanctuaries; but had they been originally sepulchres, such a transition would have been less natural and probable.

Such were the impressions with which we spent the evening beneath our tent in Wady Mûsa. Around us were the desolations of ages; the dwellings and edifices of the ancient city

very capacious, affording shelter to both the inhabitants and their flocks. See Seetzen in Zach's Monatl. Corr. XVIII. pp. 856. 418.

So too Diodorus Siculus says, in speaking of the Egyptians, 1. 51: AióTep TV μὲν κατὰ τὰς οἰκίας κατασκευῶν ἧττον

φροντίζουσι, περὶ δὲ τὰς ταφὰς ὑπερβολὴν οὐκ ἀπολείπουσι φιλοτιμίας. Comp. Gesenius Comm. zu Jesa. 14, 18-20. 22, 16.

E. g. the temples of Abu Simbel; Wilkinson's Mod. Egypt, II. p. 327 sq. Burckhardt's Nubia, p. 88. Irby and Mangles, pp. 29, 37 sq. [10, 12 sq.]

crumbled and strewed in the dust; the mausolea of the dead in all their pristine beauty and freshness, but long since rifled, and the ashes of their tenants scattered to the winds. Well might there be the stillness of death; for it was the grave itself, a city of the dead, by which we were surrounded.

Yet this impressive silence was not uninterrupted. Our Arabs had slaughtered the sheep we had bought, and made themselves a feast. They were in high glee; and the voice of singing, story-telling, and mirth, sounded strangely amid these sepulchres. Our Haweitât companions had given us to-day another specimen of their thievish propensities. As we entered the Sik, they contrived to throw into confusion the flock of sheep which was there feeding, watched by an Arab boy; and separating a lamb, drove it into the Sik along with the one which the Jehâlîn were leading. We were in advance at the time; and as the worthies came up, they pretended that the lamb had strayed away and was following us of its own accord. It was not till we appealed very decidedly to Sheikh Hussân, that he sent one of his men to take the animal back.

Friday, June 1st. On entering the high table land of the mountains yesterday, we heard that many of the Ma'âz, an Arab tribe from the sandy region of the Hismeh,' east of 'Ákabah, having been driven out of their own country by the drought, had spread themselves here among these mountains, where the rains had been more abundant. Our Arabs of the Jehâlîn felt some alarm on learning the presence of these strangers; for although they stood towards them in no relations either of alliance or hostility, yet the character of all these lawless hordes of the desert is such, that when away from home, where no responsibility would fall on their own tribe, they would not hesitate to rob a passing traveller or caravan. A large encampment of them, it was said, lay near the way out from Wady Musa by Mount Hor to the 'Arabah.

On awaking this morning, our first information was, that the Sheikh of the Bedûn, a clan of the Haweitât who pasture in and around Wady Musa, had arrived in the night with several armed men, in order to claim from us a Ghufr, that is, a tax, tribute, present, or whatever else it may be called, for the privilege of visiting the place. On looking out, we saw him sleeping by his dromedary near the tent. Supposing the matter would be arranged without difficulty, we left the Sheikh to finish his nap; while we went out before breakfast to improve our time and visit the Deir, the only remaining distant point which we now wished to examine.

We took as a guide a shepherd of the valley, who happened

1 See above, Vol. I. p. 174.