Journey through Arabia Petraea, to Mount Sinai, and the excavated city of Petra, the edom of the prophesis . h settlers having other pur-poses in view might have stood in need for theirsubsistence. As to the expenses incurred in theconstruction of these funeral or religious monu-ments, they could scarcely have been felt by theparties concerned in an undertaking that yieldedso much wealth : besides, these expenses couldnot have been very great, as the materials were onthe spot, and had only to be quarried and fashionedtor the purposes for which they were intended. In order to afford some idea o
Journey through Arabia Petraea, to Mount Sinai, and the excavated city of Petra, the edom of the prophesis . h settlers having other pur-poses in view might have stood in need for theirsubsistence. As to the expenses incurred in theconstruction of these funeral or religious monu-ments, they could scarcely have been felt by theparties concerned in an undertaking that yieldedso much wealth : besides, these expenses couldnot have been very great, as the materials were onthe spot, and had only to be quarried and fashionedtor the purposes for which they were intended. In order to afford some idea of these ruins, Ihave selected two points of view, which appear tome to represent them with considerable first, taken from the south-east, which will befound in the plate annexed, exhibits the wholescene at one glance, having on the right an isolatedpillar on a small hill; the foreground of the pic-ture is enclosed by rocks split into large fissures. The second sketch, which forms the vignette tothis chapter, gives a side view of the same funerealmonuments throughout their whole extent, with. S RUINS. 83 the isolated pillar as before, and the mountain ofTih in the distance. These two views embrace the whole of theruins, as well as the general aspect of the countryobservable at that height: the impression derivedfrom them would be more satisfactory if it werepracticable to transfer to paper the sombre barren-ness that prevails over the scene. I wanderedfor some time amidst the heaps of ruins that layaround, and sketched many of the details, in orderthat nothing should escape my attention. Butthey were in such a state of disorder, that I foundit difficult to obtain an accurate idea of the formsin which they appeared, when fresh from the chiselof the sculptor. I have copied from them, how-ever, two sets of hieroglyphics, which may, per-haps, serve to fix the date of these monuments/ * I then turned my thoughtsto Sarhat al Kartlem, and havingsent the camels forward, we
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