Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1884-04-06

| The valley of the upper Nile abound
Ia carvings of natures form that hav,
I attracted the attention of all travellers
In the borders of the mouatain rocks
complacentiy looking upon tine eve
flowing river to which Egypt owes be-
| greatness and her grandeur, are carved
Immense human figures in bas relic!
seventy rive feet In hight. though in a
sitting posture In the inches below
are the famous Curyacticles. nearly
thirty feet in hight. such wonderful
sentineis guard the resting place of tue
Queen of Reomesis. entomoed in til.
/ solid mountain side. The Sphynx OF
Egypt Is A wonder Of the world. li3 feet
III hight, l02 feet about the forehead.
and 20 feet from the breast to the fore
paws.
Pompey's Pillar is 100 feet high. and
the capital weighs 200 pounds. says
Wendell Phillips, in his lecture on the
Lost Arts - :" A Nation that could
place that capital 100 feet IN the air
might discuss Egyptian mechanics.
let the Egyptians qaarried that stone
and carried 1t $50 miles, and the Ro-
mans carried 1t another 80 miles, and
SAID nothing about II.
Yet more wou derful than tomb or OBJ
ellsk, more mighty than karnak itself.
are the chiseied temples of long hid
den city of solid rock, called in the BIZ
ble Selah, and by the Arabs Petra, the
former capital of Arabia Petra, recently
photographed by Edward Wilson. and
during the past winter exhibited tefore
The American Geographical Society by
the maker, who has been received With
Immense enthusiasm IN many places.
y curious revelation 1t IL, like the Sculp-
ture rocks of Pueblo, or tho Immense
WORKS of ancient Egypt, but combining
Roman, Grecian and Egyptian archi-
lecture In wonderful symmetry. Who
these wonderful stonecutters were. the
Philadelphia Ledger of February 18th,
1884, says edltOrlaiiy: ihe ruins are
far out of the way of ordinary caravan
travel, through the most barren and diff
hcult country, and the Arabs resist ev-
cry atsemrt to explore them by reason
of the tradition that they conceal great
treasures. MIR. Wilson did get there,
however, and we have the result iu his
illuminated pictures" The forms, di-
Isensions, proportions, ornamentatiOn
and grace of the structures delight the
observer and the hearer at every stage
of progress.
There is strange mingling of styles
In architecture. Of course every one is
ready to find architecture of the Egyp-
tan type as seen in the pyramidal forms
and In Obelisks. but who could expect to
find Corinthian facades of the most
graceful forms in such place! In the
absence of recorded history with regard
to these structures. the observer begins
to doubt whether We get Our GrecIan
cOlonnades, pediments and tablatures
from tho people who inhabited this
Arabian wilderness of barren rocks, or
whether that noble style of architecture
was carried there by means that no one
can understand. 1t Is the revocation of
n world comparatively unknown to ar
chaeology, architecture, ethuology, ge-
Ography and general science.
Of this won er.ul city Smiths Die
tionary of the Bible says: In the or d
of the fourth century b. c. it appears
as the headquarters of the Nabotheans,
who successfully resisted the attacks of
Antlgonus, and under them became one
of the greatest stations for the approach
pf eastern commerce to Il ,me. 1t was
by Traian reduced to subjection to the
Roman Empire. The principal ruins
are |, III khuznet =, the theater 3,
the tomb with three rows of columns
\, tomb with Latin inscri ptlon ;, an
cent bruiyeS 8, a triumphal arch"
These views will be shown al the Bap-
tist Church on Tuesday evening, IS per
advertisement.