Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-11-08
The Ruined Cities of Arabia.

Petra has long been famous, but it APP
pears that it can no longer claim to be
unique. 1t is but one of many city sites
with which the Peninsula OF Arabia Is
strewn. The remains at Petra are rock
Gu. sepulchres and few public halls, the
dwellings are gone. Probably the houses
were of CLAW, as were those of the city of
el-Heir, or Medyin Saith. Here, hewn out
of the cliffs that border sandstone plain
sixteen miles in length and width, are
numerous tombs, similar to those at Petra.
The facades are full of cornices and pilas-
ters showing a strange mixture OF the
Egyptian and Greek styles. trns and
strange grifin-like figures adorn the ped
ments, and in some of the tvmpanl mans
head with braided side locks is introduced
as an ornament. The walls of the cham
bers have ranges of shelves, graves are
sunk in the floor, and human bones, num-
my clouts and other remains are found.
At gorge in the adjoining mountains of
Ethlib is the only excavated chamber
which is not tomb. This contains a
number of tablets, with figures sometimes
like pillars, one, two or three together, and
engraved inscriptions i'll a Nabathean-lke
character above. Eleven miles from ell
Heir, near the village of cl-Ally, is the site
of another old town, where the inscriptions
are Himvaric At Teyma, some eighty
miles north of Medyin Saith, are the walls
of the old city of Teyma mentioned by the
Hebrew prophets There are also some
large columns of barbarc workmanship.
The aspect of Arabia is that of de-
cayed country. While the ancient Arab
ans hored deep wells in the rock walled
them with stone, and built stone houses,
their Moslem successors were clay build
ers, and now the Bedouins only dig shall
low pits with their hands and Il stick.
Among the Oldest Arabian remains are
huge erect stones such as would he called
Druidical in Britain, and buildings Of huge
irregular blocks, such as are commonly
called Cyclopean or Pelasgian. Monu-
ments of uncertain age, built of unhewn
stone, are frequent in the valleys and on
the surface of the Harrat Tor Butte ell
Aneyrid, near Medyin Saith. They are
shaped like beehives and are about II feet
high and % across In one place $50 of
them stood together, Each is built over a
sepulchral cell, access to which is obtained
through hole in the top. Mr.. Doughty,
who discovered these remains in lS76-7S,
has been followed by Professor Euting, who
has recently returned to Egypt Sir Henry
Rawlinson does not believe that the in
scriptions are older than the first or sec
ond century of the Christian era. The
Himyaritic inscriptions were probably left
by pilgrims from the south of Arabia,
where Himvaritic was the language while
the northern Arabs would, of course write
in their own language, the Nabathean.
The Sinaitic inscriptions, which made so
great a sensation a few years ago, and were
believed to be records left by Moses of the
Exodus, had been proved to be simply me-
MORALS of pilgrims on their way to and
from Sinai. No monuments of high an
tiquity have yet been found in Arabia, ex-
cept the foot of statue found in the
island of Bahrein, and bearing an inscrip-
ton in cuneiform characters