The boy cupid, companion to Venus, glimpsed in the distance. It is his task to present you with love, and he walks among the prom revelers, not with arrows, but with notes of love which he presents here and there. Venus herself is in attendance, and she wears a silken billowing gown and a tiara forged of moonlight. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones, step aside please. We are now entering the ancient city of Petra, lost for a thousand years in the shifting sands of the desert.
Vast columns rise into the dim skies.
Gods with snake heads, bull and jackal faces, stare down from atop the columns, out from the carved friezes that decorate the walls. Scenes are carved on those friezes, of slaves raising huge temples, and archaic rites now long forgotten. Words of power in heiroglyphic script are etched deep into columns and masonry walls, their meanings now undecipherable. But all has long been ruined, and the partly collapsed walls and columns litter the landscape. Everything has a golden sandy color, while the faded ochres still show here and there on the friezes.