nooks and recesses of the mountain. Such quadrangular towers, our Travellers remark to have been a fashionable form of sepulchre in several inland districts of the East: they abound at Palmyra, and are seen in the Valley of Jehoshaphat; but there, the details and ornaments betray an imitation of Roman architecture, while at Petra they bear the marks of a peculiar and indigenous style. Their sides have generally 'a slight degree of that inclination towards each other, which is one of the characteristics of Egyptian edifices, and they are crowned with the Egyptian torus and concave frieze.' Chateaubriand has remarked on the manifest alliance of the Egyptian and the Grecian taste in the tombs at Jerusalem. From this alliance resulted,' he says, a heterogeneous kind • of monuments, forming, as it were, the link between the Py'ramids and the Parthenon. Among this multitude of tombs, two only contained inscriptions: the characters of these, Mr. Bankes detected to be exactly similar to those which he had seen scratched on the rocks about the foot of Mount Sinai, and they are supposed to be some form of the Syriac. It was the eastern approach to Petra which the Travellers were pursuing. As they advanced,

⚫ the natural features of the defile grew more and more imposing at every step, and the excavations and sculpture more frequent on both sides, till it presented at last a continued street of tombs, beyond which the rocks, gradually approaching each other, seemed all at once to close without any outlet. There is, however, one frightful chasm for the passage of the stream, which furnishes, as it did anciently, the only avenue to Petra on this side. It is impossible to conceive any thing more awful or sublime than such an approach. The width is not more than just sufficient for the passage of two horsemen abreast; the sides are in all parts perpendicular, varying from four hundred to seven hundred feet in height; and they often overhang to such a degree, that, without their absolutely meeting, the sky is intercepted and completely shut out for one hundred yards together, and there is little more light than in a cavern. The screaming of the eagles, hawks, and owls who were soaring above our heads in considerable numbers, seemingly annoyed at any one approaching their lonely habitation, added much to the singularity of this scene. The tamarisk, the wild fig, and the oleander grow luxuriantly about the road, rendering the passages often difficult: in some places, they hang down most beautifully from the cliffs and crevices where they had taken root. The caper plant was also in luxuriant growth, the continued shade furnishing them with moisture.

Very near the entrance into this romantic pass, a bold arch is thrown across at a great height, connecting the opposite sides of the cliff. Whether this was part of an upper road upon the summit of the mountain, or whether it be a portion of an aqueduct, which seems less probable, we had no opportunity of examining; but, as the tra

veller passes under it, its appearance is most surprising, hanging thus above his head betwixt two rugged masses apparently inaccessible. The ravine, without changing much its general direction, presents so many elbows and windings in its course, that the eye can seldom penetrate forward beyond a few paces, and is often puzzled to distinguish in what direction the passage will open, so completely does it appear obstructed.... We followed this sort of half-subterranean passage for the space of nearly two miles, the sides increasing in height as the path continually descended, while the tops of the precipices retained their former level. Where they are at the highest, a beam of stronger light breaks in at the close of the dark perspective, and opens to view, half seen at first through the tall narrow opening, columns, statues, and cornices of a light and finished taste, as if fresh from the chisel, without the tints or weather-stains of age, and executed in a stone of a pale rose colour, which was warmed, at the moment we came in sight of them, with the full light of the morning sun. The dark green of the shrubs that grow in this perpetual shade, and the sombre appearance of the passage whence we were about to issue, formed a fine contrast with the glowing colour of this edifice. We know not with what to compare this scene: perhaps there is nothing in the world that resembles it. Only a portion of a very extensive architectural elevation is seen at first; but it has been so contrived, that a statue with expanded wings, perhaps of victory, just fills the centre of the aperture in front, which being closed below by the sides of the rock folding over each other, gives to the figure the appearance of being suspended in the air at a considerable height; the ruggedness of the cliffs below setting off the sculpture to the highest advantage. The rest of the design opened gradually as we advanced, till the narrow defile, which had continued thus far without any increase of breadth, spreads on both sides into an open area of a moderate size, whose sides are by nature inaccessible, and present the same awful and romantic features as the avenues which lead to it: this opening gives admission to a great body of light from the eastward. The position is one of the most beautiful that could be imagined for the front of a great temple, the richness and exquisite finish of whose decorations offer a most remarkable contrast to the savage scenery. No part is built, the whole being purely a work of excavation; and its minutest embellishments, wherever the hand of man has not purposely effaced them, are so perfect, that it may be doubted whether any work of the ancients, excepting, perhaps, some on the banks of the Nile, have come down to our time so little injured by the lapse of age. There is, in fact, scarcely a building of forty years' standing in England, so well preserved in the greater part of its architectural decorations.

'The area before the temple is about 50 yards in width, and about three times as long. It terminates to the S. in a wild precipitous cliff. The defile assumes for about 300 yards, the same features which characterize the eastern approach, with an infinite variety of tombs, both Arabian and Roman, on either side. This pass conducts (in a N. W. direction) to the theatre: and here, the ruins of the city

burst on the view in their full grandeur, shut in on the opposite side, by barren, craggy precipices, from which numerous ravines and valleys like those we had passed, branch out in all directions.'

Those which they examined, were found to end precipitously, and there is no getting out of them, except, in one ínstance, by climbing the precipice.

The sides of the mountains, covered with an endless variety of excavated tombs and private dwellings, presented altogether, the most singular scene we had ever beheld: and we must despair to give the reader an idea of the singular effect of rocks tinted with the most extraordinary hues, whose summits present us with nature in her most savage and romantic form, while their bases are worked out in all the symmetry and regularity of art, with colonnades, and pediments, and ranges of corridors adhering to the perpendicular surface.'

pp. 414-423. There can be no doubt that this extraordinary spot is, as Burckhardt supposed, the Petra of Pliny and Strabo, the capital of the Nabatæi; notwithstanding that the Greek Church has transferred the name of Battra, with its metropolitan honours, to Kerek, which Burckhardt concludes to be the Charax of Pliny. Thus, the very existence of the real Petra, has been hitherto blotted out from memory. One of the most remarkable of the excavations has evidently served as a Christian church. Near an angle in the walls, is an inscription in red paint, recording the date of its consecration'-what date, or in what character, is not mentioned. Two days, from daybreak to dusk, were spent by our Travellers upon these ruins; but they could not in that time half explore them. At a considerable distance, a temple was descried, larger apparently than that which fronts the eastern approach; they were unable to discover the path to it. There was enough, in short, to have employed the party four days more at least, but nothing could obtain from the Arabs a further respite. Burckhardt's survey was still more hasty, as he owed his safety to passing for a Moslem; in which character he did not scruple to sacrifice a goat to Haroun (Aaron), in sight of the Prophet's tomb, which overlooks the city. It serves to identify the site, that Josephus expressly mentions the place of Aaron's decease being near the metropolis of Arabia Petræa; and Eusebius says, that the tomb of Aaron was shewn near Petra. The Travellers, therefore, could have no doubt that it was Mount Hor, whose rugged pinnacle towered up before them, adding another picturesque and interesting feature to this extraordinary scene. The tomb itself, which is accessible only by means of a steep ascent partly artificial-in some places, flights of rude steps or

niches being formed in the rock-is enclosed in a small modern building, not differing from the general appearance of the tombs of Mahommedan saints. Here, a decrepid old shiekh has resided for forty years, occasionally enduring the fatigue of descending and re-ascending the mountain. Not aware that his visiters were Christians, he furnished them with a lamp of butter to explore the vault or grotto beneath. Towards the further end, lie two corresponding leaves of an iron grating, which formerly prevented all nearer approach to the tomb: these have been thrown down, and the Travellers advanced so far as to touch the ragged pall which covers the hallowed spot. The tomb is patched together out of fragments of stone and marble. Rags and shreds of yarn, with glass beads and paras, have been left as votive offerings by the Arabs.

'No where,' says the Writer, is the extraordinary colouring of these mountains more striking than in the road to the Tomb of Aaron. The rock sometimes presented a deep, sometimes a paler blue, and sometimes was occasionally streaked with red, or shaded off to lilac or purple; sometimes a salmon colour was veined in waved lines and circles with crimson and even scarlet, so as to resemble exactly the colour of raw meat; in other places, there are livid stripes of yellow or bright orange; and in some parts all the different colours were ranged side by side in parallel strata; there are portions also with paler tints, and some quite white, but these last seem to be soft, and not good for preserving the sculpture. It is this wonderful variety of colours observable throughout the whole range of mountains, that gives to Petra one of its most characteristic beauties: the façades of the tombs, tastefully as they are sculptured, owe much of their imposing appearance to this infinite diversity of hues in the stone.'

pp. 434, 5.

Such a scene might have furnished the Author of Rasselas with a fine model for his happy valley. The Arabian Nights scarcely afford a picture equal in richness to this fantastic city in the rocks, the monument and mausoleum of a once mighty and now forgotten nation. Thus strikingly is the oracle fulfilled: "Edom shall be a desolation*."

We find that we must very briefly give the sequel of the journey. The party, in returning, made an excursion from Kerek, for the purpose of examining the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, of which a sketch is given. They searched for the shells mentioned by Seetzen, as proving that there are living creatures in the Lake, but found none, excepting snailshells and a small spiral species, invariably empty. Dead

* Jer. xlix. 17.

locusts were found in very great numbers, which had not become putrid, nor had they any smell as when cast up by any other sea, being completely penetrated and incrusted with salt; and they had lost their colour. That this Lake is not impassable, however, by living thing, as the ancients fabled, the party had ocular evidence in a pair of Egyptian geese, and afterwards a flight of pigeons, who passed over it. The want of vegetable matter and of fresh water, is a sufficient reason why so few living things are to be seen on the Lake. Lumps of nitre and fine sulphur were picked up on the coast, but these had evidently been brought down from the cliffs. The salt deposited in the shallows and small pools by the receding waters, is in many instances as fine and well bleached as in regular salt-pans. The Travellers were surprised to notice for the first time near the beach, the oskar plant grown to the stature of a tree; its trunk measuring, in some instances, two or more feet in circumference, and the boughs at least fifteen feet high, a size which far exceeded that of any they saw in Nubia.

There is very little doubt,' says Captain M., of this being the fruit of the Dead Sea, so often noticed by the ancients as appearing juicy and delicious to the eye, while within it is hollow, or filled with something grating and disagreeable in the mouth. The natives make use of the filaments which are enclosed in the fruit, and which somewhat resemble the down of a thistle, as a stuffing for their cushions; and they likewise twist them, like thin rope, into matches for their guns, which, they assured us, required no application of sulphur to render them combustible.' p. 450.

From Kerek, proceeding in a N. N. E. direction, the Travellers came in two hours to Rabba; (Rabbath Moab, afterwards Areopolis ;) the ruins are inconsiderable. A mile and a half further, are the ruins of Beit Kerm, supposed to be Carnaim. The Wady Modjeb is considered to be the ancient Arnon, the boundary of the Moabites and the Amorites. The Baal Meon or Maon of Scripture, still bears the name of Maan. At Oom i Rasass, (Mother of Stones,) they found very extensive ruins, 'evidently Christian,' but not otherwise remarkable. At Heshbon, they passed a night, but had not time to search for the pools. They spent nearly a day in examining the ruins of Rabbath Ammon (Philadelphia), now called Amman: these Burckhardt has fully described. After re-visiting Djerash, they returned to Tiberias, and hence proceeded, through Nazareth, to Acre, where they embarked for Constantinople.

The journey through Asia Minor, which they performed in the fall of the same year, occupies the concluding Letter; but we the less regret our inability to spare room for noticing it, as