The Press., 1916-09-14
\ CITY OF MYSTERY.
Ancient Petra, In Arabia, Now In
 Ruins and Deserted.
LIVED IN EARLY BIBLE TIMES.

Then 1t Was Famous and Wealthy
 and a Place Where History Was
 Made-Its Curious Temples. Tonnbs
 and Dwellings Carved Out of Solid
 Rock.
 The strangest city in the world is Petra, cut out of solid rock in lone- some mountain valley in the Arabian desert. Once rich city, It is now an abandoned ruin. It is so old that its origin is lost to history, but it was well known in early Bible times when the Edomites inhabited it, and about century after the beginning of the Christian era 1t was conquered by the Romans. But few centuries later 1t was abandoned by civilization, and for l,5OO years 1t lay forgotten by the world until the traveller Burckhardt re-, discovered it in 1872.
 So inaccessible is its situation, al though it once lay on a trade route, that not more than fifty travellers are known to have visited it since Burck- hardts time.
 No rOmancer ever conceived such place. All around are barren noun tains. rocky, wild and trackiess. Be yond the mountains stretches the des- ert. A savage glen deepens into long. narrow gorge with perpendicular walls one or two hundred feet in height Fol lowing this ravine for two miles, the adventurous traveller suddenly finds himself at kind of gateway in the rocks, like the entrance to a Roman amphitheater
 Here he is confronted by a temple cut in the rock, with the most exquisite Corinthian columns, and, entering the doorway, he finds himself in the heart of the hill, surrounded by subterranean architecture of the most elaborate beauty of form and workmanship. This is the so called khasneh, or treasury supposed to have been built by the Ro- man emperor Hadrian, who visited Petra in the year 131 A. D. Although called treasury, it was temple de voted to Isis. No description of this strange building has ever excelled that given by Stephens. the first American traveller to see it:
 .'The whole temple, its columns. or naments, porticoes and porches are cut out from and form a part of the solid rock, and this rock, at the foot of which the temple stands like mere print. towers several hundred feet above, its face cut smooth to the very summit and the top remaining wild and misshapen, as nature made it. Nei- ther the Coliseum ut Rome, grand anu interesting as it is, nor the ruins of the Acropolis at Athens nor the pyramids nor the mighty temples of the Nile are so often present to my memory
 But this is only an introduction |, the marvels behind. The gorge opens out into narrow valley some thrc' miles in circumference. everywher, sunk deep beneath the intlosing noun tains. and the walls of this valley art filled with the remains of other rock cut temples, tombs and dwelling places. In one place are the remains of an open air theater. Some of th, structures cut in the face of the rock are several stories ill height. while their architectural details excite the
 
 Of course they gain immensely in t;l>. eyes of the surprised visitor by thcir situation alSd by the air of total aban donment which surrounds them. The! are at various heights above the Hoo. or the valley, and the uplifting of th. eyes turned to study them adds to th. impression of lonely majesty wlicl 1 they make upon them.
 It is rare to meet any human bciiI& | in the place. Sometimes Il few Arab. l are seen. but at night the voices oI wolves, Hyenas, owls and jackals ma, be heard, and occasionally one of these animals may be surprised lurking ill til | dark interior of an open tomb. Large l serpents are also sometime met with.
 It is not surprising that some visitor> have applied to Petra, which has been | supposed to be the Selah of the Bible | the curses uttered by the Hebrew prophets against the land of Idumea | such as these: And thorns shall como | up in her palaces, nettles and ramb.e in the fortresses thereof. and it shal | be habitation for dragons and courl | for owls" or, ''Oh. thou that dweIl,asi in the clLfts of the rocks. that lIu.dcs, | the height of the hill. though tlJt make the nest as high iis tll, eagles l will bring thee down rro..