A "ROSE-RED" CITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20053, 16 September 1920, Page 6

A "ROSE-RED" CITY.

HALF As OLD AS TIME, ENCHANTED MOUNTAINS OF EDOM. Mr L. Th Cirri ns writes in “ Asia ” n tascintiling story of his visit to Petra, that lies deep in the wilderness of the Arabian desert, a few miles from the town of Maan, and not far from Mount Uor, where tho Israelites buried their great leader Aaron. Petra is described bv Mr Thomas as a rose-red city half as old as time." After reading Colonel Lawrence’s enthusiastic description of tho palace carved out of the living rock, whore ho camped with his Bedouins,-Mr Thomas made tho ninety-mile journey from Anaba to Petra “After pushing oar way through the gorge tor more than an hour, we rounded tho last bend. There, in front of us, many miles from any sign of civilised habitation, deep in tho heart of the Arabian desert, was a temple, a delicate and limpid rose, carved like a (amco from a sombre cliff. It was even, more beautiful than the Temple of Theseus at Athens. After trekking nearly a hundred miles across the desert, to come suddenly face to face with such a marvellous structure lairly took our breath away. “The secret of its enchantment lies partly in its position at one of the most unusual gateways in the world. The columns, pediments and fricaes have been richly carved, but it is difficult to distinguish many of tho designs, which have been disfigured by time and Mohammedan iconoclasts. THE DESERTED CITY. “ The tcmplo was probably carved from a cliff almost two thousand years ago during the reign of tho Roman Emperor Hadrian, who visited Petra in 131 AD. Tho desert Arabs who were with mo said it was called El Khaznch, or the Treasury, because of tho groat urn that surmounts the edifice; which tho Bedouins believe is filled with tho good and precious jewels of tho Pharaohs. “ The city lay farther down on the plain of an oval valley, a mile and a half long and half a mile wide. How populous it was there is no way of telling, but several hundred thousand people must once have lived there. Only the more insignificant buildings have perished, and even of these some striking remains remain. Tho upper part of tho valley is the site of ancient fortresses, palaces, tombs and amusement resorts—all curved out of the solid rocks. Tho lower part was apparently a water circus where the pouphj indulged in aquatic sports and tournaments. Petra is a huge excavation made hy the forces of nature. From the lXK)0-foot plateau from which wo first saw tho mountains of Edom, wo dropped down to an altitude of 1000 feet when we entered the ruined city. IT'S WONDROUS COLOURS. “ All the explorers and travellers who have visited Petra have marvelled at the wonderful colours of Its sandstone cliffs. In tho morning sunlight they are like great rainbows of stone flashing out white, vermilion, saffron, orange, pink and crimson. Time and tho forces of nature have played the magician, painting tho different .strata in rare tints and hues. At sunset they glow with strange radiance before .sinking into tho sombre darkness of The desert night. “ .Stairs carved from the rock, some more than a mile in length, run to tho top of nearly all the mountains around Petra. Wo climbed one groat staircase to the temple called by the Arabs El Deir, or tho Convent, a most impressive grey facade,_ 160 ft high, surmounted by a gigantic urn and decorated with heads_ of Mcdiisa. Most of tho steps cut into tho mountains led to sacrificial altars, where the people used to worship on the high places thousands of years ago. An even greater staircase winds up to the Mount of Sacrifice, an isolated peak that dominates tho whole basin. On the summit are two altars, one hollowed out for making fires, and the other round, provided with a blood pool for tho slaughter* of the victim offered to Dhn-shara and Allat, the .chief god and goddess of ancient Petra. “ Lawrence told me that it was supposed to bo the most complete and perfect example in existence of -an ancient Semitic high place. THE VANISHED PEOPLE. “ All tho buildings in this city of ghosts have elaborate facades, but within they aro simple and austere. Their magnitude and beauty even now strike one with awe. How much more they must have meant to beauty worshippers in the days when tho city pulsed with life! Vest of the stone is rose-coloured, shot with blue and porphyry. The • deserted streets are rich with laurels and oleanders, wbosp hues seem copied from tho rock itself. In fact, the only inhabitants of this rose-red city for fourteen hundred years have been tho millions of brilliant wild flowers that flourish in the cracks of ’ former palaces and wind themselves around halfsruined. columns. “In tho centre of tho city, surrounded on all sides by temples and palaces and tombs, is a great amphitheatre, cut out of the base of tho same mountain that leads to tho great high place of sacrifice. Tiers and tiers of seats face the mountain avenues of tombs. _ It is the one symbol of life and mirth in all this mysterious deserted city. The laughter and cheers of thousands once rang here across this hollow cemetery of ancient' hopes and ambitions. Where now arc all the gay throngs who occupied these seals on feast days and watched the. games? Little, did the laiiVuont Edomites or Nabntanms imagine that a people called Americans would ono dav wander among the ruins of their proud city. “The presence of Egyptian architecture and symbols indicates that Petra must have been built by a race that bad come in contact with the culture of the peoples who carved the Sphinx and piled up the Pyramids. “Nobody knows when or bv whom Petra was built. It had its beginning long before the time of Abraham, and was an old city when the Israelites fled from Egyptian bondage. A little more than a. century ago, John Lewis Bnrckhardt, a Swiss traveller, who had beard rumours of a great oily of rock lying far out on the fringe of the Arabian desert, penetrated the aorge and found once again litis wonderful old city of Petra, which had not been mentioned in any litcrarv record since A.D. 536."