The situations of these excavations are not more various than their forms and dimensions. Mere niches are sometimes cut in the face of the rock, of little depth and of various sizes and forms, of which it is difficult to conjecture the object, unless they had some connection with votive offerings and religious rites. By far the largest number of excavations were manifestly designed as places for the interment of the dead, and thus exhibit a variety in form and size, of interior arrangement and external decorations, adapted to the different fortunes of their occupants, and conformable to the prevailing tastes of the times in which they were made. There are many tombs consisting of a single chamber, ten, fifteen, or twenty feet square by ten or twelve in height, containing a recess in the wall large enough to receive one or a few deposits, sometimes on a level with the floor, at others one or two feet above it, and not un frequently near the ceiling, at the height of eight or ten feet. Occasionally oblong pits or graves are sunk in the recesses, or in the floor of the prin cipal apartment. Some of these are of considerable depth, but they are mostly choked with stones and rubbish, so that it is impossible to ascertain it. In these plebeian tombs there is commonly a door of small dimensions, and an absence of all archi tectural decorations ; in some of larger dimensions there are several recesses occupying two or three sides of the apartment. These seem to have been formed for family tombs. Besides these unadorned habitations of the humble dead, there is a vast number of excavations enriched with various archi tectural ornaments. To these unique and sumptu ous monuments of the taste of one of the most ancient races of men with whom history has made us acquainted, Petra is indebted for its great and peculiar attractions. This ornamental architecture is wholly confined to the front, while the interior is quite plain and destitute of all decoration. Pass the threshold, and nothing is seen but perpendicular walls, bearing the marks of the chisel, without mouldings, columns, or any species of ornament. But the exteriors of these primitive and even rude apartments exhibit some of the most beautiful and. imposing results of ancient taste and skill which have remained to our times. The front of the mountain is wrought into facades of splendid temples, riv-alling in their aspect and symmetry the most celebrated monuments of Grecian art. Columns of various orders, graceful pediments, broad rich entablatures, and sometimes statuary, all hewn out of the solid rock, and still forming part of the native mass, transform the base of the mountain into a vast splendid pile of architecture, while the overhanging cliffs, toweling above in shapes as rugged and wild as any on which the eye ever rested, form the most striking and curious of contrasts. In most instances it is impossible to assign these beautiful facades to any particular style of architecture. Many of the columns re
semble those of the Corinthian order, but they deviate so far both in their forms and ornaments from this elegant model, that it would be impossible to rank them in the class. A few are Doric, which are precisely those that have suffered most from the ravages of time, and are probably very ancient.
But nothing contributes so much to the almost magical effect of some of these monuments as the rith and various colours of the rock out of which, or more properly in which, they are formed. The mountains that encompass the vale of Petra are of sandstone, of which red is the predominant hue. Their surface is a good deal burned and faded by the elements, and is of a dull brick colour ; and most of the sandstone formations in this vicinity, as well as a number of the excavations of Petra, exhibit nothing remarkable in their colouring which does not belong to the same species of rock through out a considerable region of Arabia Petrxa. Many of them, however, are adorned with such a pro fusion of the most lovely and brilliant colours as it is scarcely possible to describe. Red, purple, yellow, azure or sky blue, black and white, are seen in the same mass distinctly in successive layers, or blended so as to form every shade and. hue of which they are capable—as brilliant and as soft as they ever appear in flowers, or in the plumage of birds, or in the sky when illuminated by the most glorious sunset. The red perpetually shades into pale, or deep rose or flesh colour, and again approaches the hue of the lilac or violet. The white, which is often as pure as snow, is oc casionally just dashed with blue or red. The blue is usually the pale azure of the clear sky, or of the ocean, but sometimes has the deep and pecu liar shade of the clouds in summer when agitated by a tempest. Yellow is an epithet often applied to sand and sandstone. The yellow of the rocks of Petra is as bright as that of saffron. It is more easy to imagine than describe the effect of tall, graceful columns, exhibiting these exquisite colours in their succession of regular horizontal strata. They are displayed to still greater advan tage in the walls and ceilings of some of the ex cavations where there is a slight dip in the strata.
We have thus endeavoured to give the reader a general idea of this remarkable place. Detailed descriptions of the principal monuments have been furnished by Laborde (Voyage en Arabia Petraa), Robinson (Biblical Researches), and Olin (Travels in the East, from which the above description has been chiefly taken). Interesting notices of Petra may also be found in the respective Travds, Yoztr preys, etc., of Burckhardt, hlacmichael, Irby and hlangles, Stephens, Lord Lindsay, and Schubert. —J. K. [On the identity of Petra and Kadesh, see KADESH.]