The ruined city lies in a narrow valley sur rounded by lofty, and, for the most part, perfectly precipitous mountains. These natural barriers seem to have constituted the real limits of the city ; and they give an extent of more than a mile in length, nearly from north to south, by a variable breadth of about half a mile. Several spurs from the surrounding mountains encroach upon this area ; but, with inconsiderable exceptions, the whole is fit for building on. The sides of the valley are walled up by perpendicular rocks, from four hundred to six or seven hundred feet high. The northern and southern barriers are neither so lofty nor so steep, and they both admit of the pas sage of camels. A great many small recesses or side valleys open into the principal one, thus en larging as well as varying almost infinitely the outline. With only one or two exceptions, how ever, they have no outlet, but come to a speedy and abrupt termination among the overhanging cliffs, as precipitous as the natural bulwark that bounds the principal valley. Including these ir regularities, the whole circumference of Petra may be four miles or more. The length of this irregular outline, though it gives no idea of the extent of the area within its embrace, is perhaps the best mea sure of the extent of the excavations.
The chief public buildings occupied the banks of the river and the high ground further south, as their ruins sufficiently show. One sumptuous edi fice remains standing, though in an imperfect and dilapidated state. It is on the south side of the river, near the western side of the valley, and seems to have been a palace rather than a temple. It is called Pharaoh's house, and is thirty-four paces square. The walls are nearly entire, and on the eastern side they are still surmounted by a handsome cornice. The front, which looks to ward the north, was ornamented with a row of columns, four of which are standing. An open piazza, behind the colonnade, extended the whole length of the building. In the rear of this piazza. are three apartments, the principal of which is en tered under a noble arch, apparently thirty-five or forty feet high. It is an imposing ruin, though not of the purest style of architecture, and is the more striking as the only edifice now standing in Petra.
A little east of this, and in a range with some of the most beautiful excavations in the mountain on the east side of tbe valley, are the remains of what appears to have been a triumphal arch. Under it were three passages ; and a number of pedestals of columns, as Well as other fragments, would lead to the belief that a magnificent colonnade was con nected with it A few rods south are extensive ruins, which probably belonged to a temple. The ground is covered with fragments of columns five feet in diameter. Twelve of these, whose pedestals still remain in their places, adorned either side of this stately edifice. There were also four columns in front and six in the rear of the temple. They are prostrate on the ground, and Dr. Olin counted
thirty-seven massive frustra, of which one of them was composed.
Still further south are other piles of ruins- columns and hewn stones—parts no doubt of im portant public buildings. The same traveller counted not less than fourteen similar heaps of ruins, having columns and fragments of columns intermingled with blocks of stone, in this part of the site of ancient Petra. They indicate the great wealth and magnificence of this ancient capital, as well as its unparalleled calamities. These sump tuous edifices occupied what may be called the central parts of Petra. A large surface on the north side of the river is covered with substruc tions, which probably belonged to private habita tions. An extensive region still farther north retains no vestiges of the buildings which once covered it.
The attention of travellers has been chiefly en gaged by the excavations which, having more suc cessfully resisted the ravages of time, constitute at present the great and peculiar attraction of the place. These excavations, whether formed for temples, tombs, or the dwellings of living men, surprise the visitor by their incredible number and extent They not only occupy the front of the entire mountain by which the valley is encom passed, but of the numerous ravines and recesses which radiate on all sides from this enclosed area. They exist, too, in great numbers in the precipitous rocks which shoot out from the principal moun tains into the southern, and still more into the northern part of the site, and they are seen along all the approaches to the place, which, in the days of its prosperity, were perhaps the suburbs of the overpeopled valley. Were these excavations, in stead of following all the sinuosities of the moun tain and its numerous gorges, rang,ed in regular order, they probably would form a street not less than five or six miles in length. They are often seen rising one above another in the face of the cliff; and convenient steps, now much worn, cut in the rock, lead in all directions through the fissures, and along the sides of the mountains, to the various tombs that occupy these lofty positions. Some of them are apparently not less than from two hun dred to three or four hundred feet above the level of the valley. Conspicuous situations, visible from below, were generally chosen ; but sometimes the opposite taste prevailed, and the most secluded cliffs, fronting towards some dark ravine, and quite hidden from the gaze of the multitude, were preferred. The flights of steps, all cut in the solid rock, are almost innumerable, and they ascend to great heights, as well as in all directions. Some times the connection with the city is interrupted, and one sees in a gorge, or upon the face of a cliff, fifty or a hundred feet above him, a long series of steps rising from the edge of an inaccessible pre cipice. The action of winter torrents and other agencies have worn the easy ascent into a channel for the waters, and thus interrupted the com munication.