The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-11-06
The Ruined cities of Arabia.

Petra has long been famous, but it
appears 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 cut sepUlchres and a
few public halls, the dwellings are
gone. Probably the houses were OF
clay, as were those of the city of ell
Heir, or Medyin Salih. Here, heWn
out of the cliffs that border sand
stone plain sixteen miles in length
and width, are numerous tombs,
similar to those at Petra. The
facades are full of cornices and pilas-
tiers, showing strange mixture of
the Egyptian and Greek styles. Urns
and griffin-like figures adorn the pedi-
ments, and in some of the tYmpani a
mans head with braided side-locks is
introduced as an ornament. The walls
of the chambers have ranges of
shelves, graves are sunk in the floor,
and human bones, mummy clouts and
other remains are found. AT gorge
in the adjoining mountains of Ethlib
is tho only eXcavated chamber which is
not tomb. This contains numbe of
tablets, with figures sometimes like
pillars, one, two or three together,
and engraved inscriptions in Naba-
thean-like character above. Eleven
miles from el-Hejr, near the village of
el-Ally, is the site of another old
town, where the inscriptions are Him.
yaric. 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 barbaric
workmanship.
The aspect of Arabia is that of
decayed country, While the anci-
ent Arabians bored deep wells in
the rock, walled them with stone,
and built stone houses, their Moslem
successors were clay builders, and now
the Bedouins only dig shallow pits
with their hands and stick. Among
the Oldest Arabian remains are huge
erect stones such as would be called
Druidical in Britain, and buildings of
huge irregular blocks, such as are COM
monty called Cyclopean or Pelasgian.
Monuments of uncertain age, built of
unhewn stone, are frequent in the
valleys and on the surface of the Har-
rat Tor butte el-Aneyrid, near Medyin
Saith. They are shaped like beehives
and are about IL feet high and % across,
In one place $50 of them stood to-
gether. Each is built over sepulchral
cell, access to which is obtained
through a holein the top. Mr.. Dough-
ty. who discovered these remains in
1868, has been followed by Profess
sor Euting, who has recently returned
to Egypt. Sir Henry Rawlinson does
not believe that the inscriDtions are
Older than the first or second century
of the Christian era. The Himyarite
inscriptions were probably left by pill
grims from the south of Arabia,
where Himyaritic was the language.
while the northern Arabs would. of
course, write in their own language.
the Nabathean. The Sinaitic inscrip,
lions, which made so great sensation
a few years ago, and were believed to
be records left by Moses of the Exodus.
had been proved to be simply memo.
rails of pilgrims on their way to and
from Sinai. No monuments of HIGH
antiquity have yet been found in Ar
abba, except the foot of statue found |
in the island of Bahrein, and bearing
an inscription in cuneiform char
acters.