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| Title | Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, Vol. 2 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | D. Appleton and Company |
| Date | 1883 |
| Description | Index: Phoenicia and Lebanon / by the Rev. H. W. Jessup -- The Phoenician plain / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- Acre, the key of Palestine, Mount Carmel and the river Kishon, Maritime cities and plains of Palestine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Lydda and Ramleh, Philistia / By Lt. Col. Warren -- The south country of Judaea / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- The southern borderland and Dead Sea / by Professor Palmer -- Mount Hor and the cliffs of Edom, The convent of St. Catherine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Sinai / by the Rev. C. P. Clarke -- The land of Goshen, Cairo, Memphis, Thebes, Edfu and Philae / by S. Lane-Poole. |
| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Location | DS107 .W73 v.2 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b1703789~S11 |
| Digital Collection | Exotic Impressions: Views of Foreign Lands |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/exotic |
| Repository | Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/william-r-jenkins-architecture-art-library |
| Use and Reproduction | No Copyright - United States |
| Identifier | exotic_201304_015 |
| Title | Page 215 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | exotic_201304_015_237.jpg |
| Transcript | THE SOUTHERN BORDERLAND. 2l west of this rises a lofty hill, upon the summit of which stands what is supposed to be the acropolis or citadel of Petra. The architecture of Petra belongs to the debased Roman style which was in vocnie in the third or fourth centuries of the Christian era, when the severe simplicity of the classical period had given way to florid decoration and harmony of design was sacrificed to striking effect. The Sik is one of the most beautiful and picturesque ravines in the world (see page 219). We enter by a narrow passage running between lofty perpendicular cliffs of magnificent red sandstone, and spanned by a broken archway, now quite out of reach, which once carried an aqueduct from the heights above. A clear and sparkling stream ripples along the bed of the ravine, fringed with oleanders and other shrubs, while creepers hang in graceful festoons from the rugged walls. As we advance the gorge grows narrower and grander. In the walls are several square cuttings which once held tablets, and some small ornamented niches, no doubt intended for dedicatory altars, of the same pattern as those found at Banias and elsewhere (see page 111, vol. i.). Beneath these are some imperfect Greek inscriptions. At a point in the Sik where the ravine takes a sharp turn we come upon one of the most remarkable monuments in Petra, namely, the Khuzneh Far'on, or " Pharaoh's Treasury," excavated in the solid rock and surpassing all the other tombs and temples in beauty of colour and execution (see page 212.) The facade is of a deep but delicate rose colour, which shines out in strong relief against the deep reddish-brown of the uncut rock around it and the bright green of the oleanders and other shrubs that grow beneath. The fa£ade of the temple consists of a portico originally of six columns, but one of them has now broken away. The four middle pillars support a pediment; on the apex of this is an ornament which has been variously described, but which a more careful inspection proved to be a lyre. Above the whole is a very curious piece of ornamentation : a second pediment, the width of the whole fagade, is supported by two pilasters at either end ; the pediment has then been cut through on each side of the centre, and the block so left has been fashioned into a cylindrical ornament surmounted by an urn. The cylinder and the recesses have then been furnished with pilasters and dressed to correspond with the front portions. This pediment, which is thus divided into three portions, presents nine faces of rock, each having a pilaster on either side, and on these are sculptured female figures with graceful flowing drapery. The curious device was in all probability adopted to admit of the symmetrical arrangement of nine figures—those, I take it, of the nine Muses. The lyre, the emblem of Apollo, being also introduced, lends colour to the supposition that it was dedicated to those divinities. The mysterious excavation, then, is nothing but the Musceum of Petra— not what the Turks would call an ". antiquity house," but the " philharmonic institution of the place." The next most important monument is, perhaps, the amphitheatre, which is entirely Hewn out of the solid rock (see page 216) ; it is thirty-nine yards in diameter, and contains thirty-three tiers of seats rising one above another, and capable of accommodating from |