White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1928-03-16
HIDDEN Pc IRA MAY BE
REAL "MOJNT SINAI"
Believed to Be lace Where
Moses Got Decalogue.

Washington. - Discoveries which
have led some Psychologists to accept
the view that the hidden city of Petra,
near the Dead sea, is the real Mount
Sinai" from which Moses obtained his
laws, gives that mysterious and
unique city new interest. A bulle-
tin from the Washington headquarters
Of the National Geographic society
tells Of Petra and it's unsual site.
"Petra is like fairy city hidden in
a mountain" says the bulletin. 1T
Is as though a huge peak had been
disemboweled and the ancient city set
down in the chasm.
Enter Through Canyon.
"The old entrance to the city, which
was an important factor in Its
strength, can be used today. From a
semi-desert plain one enters a mar
row canyon which is mere cleft in
towering walls of red sandstone.
Along the bottom of this canyon lit
tie stream flows. The high, Jagged
walls, at many places overhanging,
give the passage gloom even at mid
day. At one point the floor of the
canyon narrows to IL feet, and at no
place Is it wider than 40 feet.
."After one has followed this tor
tuous chasm for two miles he comes
out unexpectedly into an open plain,
approximately a mile across, entirely
surrounded by shee: cliffs and precipi-
tous slopes. Through the center
winds the little stream, municipal
water supply ages ago. On the level
ground on each side Of the stream
rose the ancient city.
"Nearly all traces of the ancient
structures that rose on the plain have
disappeared. But against the cliff
walls remains unique, and almost
lmperishable Petra. One-piece build
ings' have been carved out Of the solid
sandstone and are almost as we'll pre-
served today as when the chisels of
their creators were laid down.
"One Of the most striking Of these
creations is the so-called Treasury of
Pharaoh product Of the Greek Pc
Rod several centuries before Christ.
The front Of the edifice stands in deep
relief, Its pillars, capitals, pediment
and superstructure intact. A door
way leads into the cliff from which
rooms were followed.
"Another carved masterpiece is the
rock-hewn Greek theater that seated
some 5000 spectators. Temples also
are carved in the cliffs; but the most
numerous of the monuments are
tombs. Thousands of them look down
on the Petra plain, many showing the
most elaborate and exquisite carving.
Ancient Distributing Center.
'Petra has been called by poets the
'rose-red city half as old as time.' Its
deeply colored walls-rose, purple,
yellow, crimson-are indeed beauti-
full; and the skillful use of the col
ored strata in the carvings shows that
the Petra artists made the most Of the
esthetic possibilities. But Petra did
not exist for beauty alone. If it had
possessed chamber of commerce in
it's heyday of Importance, that organ.
ization could have boosted truthfully
that Petra was the worlds premier
distributing center and that its week
ly bank clearings' ran into many hun
dreds Of talents.
1.-THE city was the Suez and Panama
of its day, a meeting place for the
chief trade routes. Incense, spices and
other treasures of the East came from
India, Persia and farther Arabia to
this safety deposit city Of the desert.
From there goods were distributed to
Egypt, Palestine and Syria. and
through Tyre and Sidon to the Medi-
terranean countries to the west. An
important special traffic of the city
was the furnishing Of Dead sea btu
men to the embalmers of Egypt.
"How far Petra reaches back into
antiquity is not known, but it's his
tory Is at least known sketchily from
about 600 B. G. 1t is now suggested
that the more ancient town may have
served as distributing center for the
religious ideas Of the East as it's sue
cessor served in forwarding Eastern
goods"