New Britain herald., 1928-03-03
HIDDEN CITY OF
 PETRA IMPORTANT It May Have Known Moses of the Bible

Washington. D. C., March 3 = Discoveries which have led some archeolosists 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.
 Petra is like fairy city hidden in mountain. It is as though q huge peak had been disembowled and the ancient city set down in the chasm
 Enter Through Canyon
 The old entranc. to the city. which was all important factor in its strength. can be used today. From a semi-desert plain one enters narrow canyon which is a mere cleft in towering walls of red sand stone. Along the bottom Of this can yon a little stream flows. The high, jagged walls. al many places over hanging, give the passage a gloom even at midday At one point the floor ot the canyon narrows 10 r feet. and at no place is il wider than 41 feet.
 After one has followed this tor tuous chasm for two miles he comes out unexpectedly into an open plain. approximately d mile across. entire ly surrounded by sheer cliffs ani precipitous slopes. Through the cen ter windc tho little stream. q mu- nicjpal water supply ages ago. On the level ground on each side of the stream rose the ancient city.
 Carved From CliHs Nearly all traces Of the ancient structures that rose on tho plain have disappeared. But against the cliff walls remains a unique. and al most imperishable Petra. One-pieCo "buildings' have been carved out of the solid sandstone and are almost as we'll preserved today as when the chisels of their creators were laid down.
 One of the most striking Of thcs4 creations is the so-callei 'Treasnry of Pharaoh" a product ot the Greek period several centuries before Christ. The front of the editice stands in deep relief, its pillars, cap 1 itals, pedim mt, and superStructure intact. 4 doorway leads into the clitt from which rooms were hollowed. Another carved masterpiece is the 1 rock hawn Greek theater that seated some 5000 spectators. Temples also eli hut | h. .t numerous of the monuments are tombs. Thousands Of them look 1 down on the Petra plain. many | showing the most elaborate and cX- ! quisite carving.
 Petra has been called by poets the i ''rose-red city haf as old as time. '' It's deeply colored walls-rose purple. yellow, crimson-are indeed { beautiful: and the skilful usc of tn. i coiored strata in the carvings shows that the Petra artists made the most of the aesthetic possibilities. Bu' ! Petra did not exist for beauty alone If 1t had possessed chamber o1 commerce in it's heyday Of impor- ! lance. that organization could have l boasted trllthfully that Petra was 1 the worlds premier distributlne center" and that it's weekly bank clearings" ran into many hundreds of talents.
 ! The city was the Suez and Panama of it's day. q meeting place for the chief trade routes. Incense, spices and other treasures of the Eas' came from India, Persia and farther Arabia to this safety deposit city ! Of the desert From there goods i were distributed to Egypt Palestine and Syria. and through Tyre anc
 Sidon to the Mediterranean coun-
 tries to the west. An important spc.
 cial traffic of the city was the fur.
 nishing of Dead Sea bitumen to tho
 embalmers Of Egypt.