The Jordan Valley and Petra . erakspeak of this descent and ascent, at all seasons ofthe year, as a test of endurance. When our mule-teers arrived, never having seen the equal of thisdescent, they expressed themselves in no measuredlanguage, but even though they had worn them-selves hoarse, and had sent up ten thousand sup-plications to all the saints they had ever heard of,and even though they had seen, in imagination,their animals go tumbling over a hundred preci-pices, the beauty and grandeur overcame made them put down their loads, for it wasstill early, and rest the backs and limb
The Jordan Valley and Petra . erakspeak of this descent and ascent, at all seasons ofthe year, as a test of endurance. When our mule-teers arrived, never having seen the equal of thisdescent, they expressed themselves in no measuredlanguage, but even though they had worn them-selves hoarse, and had sent up ten thousand sup-plications to all the saints they had ever heard of,and even though they had seen, in imagination,their animals go tumbling over a hundred preci-pices, the beauty and grandeur overcame made them put down their loads, for it wasstill early, and rest the backs and limbs of themules before beginning the still steeper they had eaten and drank and bathed theirfaces and feet in the stream, their spirits revivedand they shared with us the exhilaration and inspi-ration of the moment, as we told them what historyclustered about these yawning valleys. The road up the southern wall of the canyonwas much shorter and steeper than that on thenorthern side. In the main, it followed the old. _> Madeba to Kcrak 315 Roman road, of whose pavement there was stretchafter stretch as good as it was eighteen hundredyears ago. An hour up the slope are the remainsof an ancient fort, with a huge water-tank in themountain behind it. Higher up, the ancientRomans fairly hewed the line of the road in theface of the precipice, and when it reaches the layersof flint, which are forty feet thick, it is a marvellouspiece of daring handiwork. One rides out on thesouthern plateau as through a doorway,—the cliffends and the plain begins without any intermediateslope or ravine. We had climbed the ascent in lessthan two hours, but our barometers showed thatthe southern wall of the canyon was about twohundred feet higher than the northern side, an in-crease due to the thickness of the lava bed almostentirely. While waiting for our caravan, we chose a camp-ing-place about five hundred yards away from theprecipice, and with the directions given by HassanEffendi soo
Size: 1162px × 2151px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishernewyorkputnam
