The Jordan valley and Petra . n just as efficient a protection to its inhab-itants as a hilltop could be. What a splendidlocation it was, and how thoroughly guarded bynature, will appear as we proceed. From ourstandpoint, we could only make out that some-where, out in the central portion of this tangledand badly eroded mass, there was a depression,deep enough for its surrounding natural walls tohide its bottom from view. A simple inspectionof the surface of the sandstone was sufficient todeter us from attempting to cross it, as a more un-even, ragged mass is hard to imagine. It seemedas though
The Jordan valley and Petra . n just as efficient a protection to its inhab-itants as a hilltop could be. What a splendidlocation it was, and how thoroughly guarded bynature, will appear as we proceed. From ourstandpoint, we could only make out that some-where, out in the central portion of this tangledand badly eroded mass, there was a depression,deep enough for its surrounding natural walls tohide its bottom from view. A simple inspectionof the surface of the sandstone was sufficient todeter us from attempting to cross it, as a more un-even, ragged mass is hard to imagine. It seemedas though, not content with its ordinary work,erosion had produced enormous pinnacles andcut deep fissures beside them, until the natural che-vaux-de-frise forbade all access from the foot ofthe limestone walls to the edge of the depression, 42 The Jordan Valley and Petra which was about two miles away. The followingsketch will give a diagrammatic idea of the region,as it would look from the direction of the Arabahin a birds-eye ,(,v !;i\W Sandstone Sffif w iti -& f ft iiai ^SfiP!8?W BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF THE LOCATION OF PETRA We had been journeying along a limestoneridge, with here and there an outcrop of basalt orflint from which the Romans built their splendidroad. And now we came to the southern edge ofthe limestone formation with a cliff-like slope of onethousand feet, and were looking down into an an-cient geological bay, which nature had filled withthis matchless mass of many-hued sandstone. This bay, in the eastern side of the great Jordandepression, immediately attracted our was almost semicircular in form, being abouttwenty miles in length, north and south, and abouttwelve or fifteen from east to west at its widestportion. Shobek to Petra 43 The sandstone mass seemed to fill it to aboutthe same height throughout its entire extent, as faras our telescopes could enable us to judge, MountHor itself being but one of many fragments leftin place during the erosion of
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