PETRA.

It is the general opinion, Burckhardt says, among the clergy of Jerusalem, that the ancient Petra was at Kerek, two days' journey south of Szalt. This place is, accordingly, the see of the Greek Bishop of Battra (Пrgas), who generally resides at Jerusalem; a proof how little stress is to be laid on the traditional information to be derived from such quarters. Kerek may perhaps be considered as at present the frontier town of Syria and Arabia, in this direction.* Its inhabitants consisted, at the time of Burckhardt's visit, in 1812, of about 400 Turkish, and 150 Christian families: the latter are chiefly descendants of refugees from Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Beit Djade. Four years before, the people of Kerek had, nominally, become Wahhabees, but they had never paid full tribute to Ibn Sâoud;* and his sovereignty in this direction was little more than nominal. He had conferred on the Sheikh of Kerek the title of Emir of all the Bedoweens south of Damascus, to the Red Sea; but the Howeytat Arabs are in possession of the country south of Kerek, and the 'Kerekein,' themselves deem it expedient to pay tribute to them. Tafyle, in the district of Djebal (Gebalene), about four days' further south, has, indeed, the character of a Syrian town, but the Howeytat govern the whole of this district. At the village Beszeyra, two hours and three quarters further,

*The pashalik of Damascus extends as far southward as Tor Hesma, a high mountain, within one day's journey of Akaba, comprising the entire districts of Djabel and Shera, and consequently including Wady Mousa and Petra itself; but the Syrian viceroy has little authority in these parts, and Djezzar is the only pasha who has been able to exact the land-tax from the Arabs of Wady Mousa. - See BURCKHARDT, p. 433.) This territory belongs, in the strictest sense, to Arabia.

the women are seen wearing the berkoa, or Egyptian veil: and this change of costume is not the only indication that the traveller is entering upon the territory of a different race from the Syrian Bedoweens. The Howeytat, who occupy the whole of Djebel Shera* from Wady Ghoeyr to Akaba el Masri, are the carriers of the Egyptian hadji caravan, as the Aenese Bedoweens are of the Syrian hadji. They resemble the Egyptians in their features, which are much less regular than those of the northern Bedoweens, especially the Aenese; they are much leaner and taller also than the northern Arabs; the skin of many of them is almost black; and their women, though tall and well made, are disfigured by broad cheek-bones.

The principal place in Djebel Shera is Shobak,† called also Kerek el Shobak, which has been a considerable town. It is situated about an hour to the south of the Ghoeyr, upon the top of a hill in the midst of low mountains. At the foot of the hill are two springs, surrounded by gardens and olive-plantations. The castle, of Saracen construction, is one of the largest to the south of Damascus, but is not so solidly built as that of Kerek. The greater part of the wall and several of the bastions and towers are still entire. The ruins of a well-built vaulted church are now transformed into a medhafe or public inn. Upon the architraves of several gates, Burckhardt noticed mystical symbols characteristic of the ecclesiastical architecture of the lower empire; and the tower of the castle has several Arabic inscriptions, in which may be distinguished the name of Melek el Dhaher. Mr Bankes found, in the architrave of the principal door, an imperfect Latin inscription, of which he made so much out as to leave no doubt that it was a work of one of the Frank Kings of Jerusalem;

* Evidently the Mount Seir or Shehir of Scripture. See p. 198. This name occurs Neh. x, 24.

and it is suggested that this might be Mons Regalis, one of their strong-holds in this direction.* Within the area of the castle, about one hundred of the Mellahein Arabs had built their huts or pitched their tents: they cultivate the neighbouring grounds under the protection of the Howeytat. From the summit is a boundless view, comprising three dark volcanic eminences,' from which lava has evidently streamed, and formed a sort of island in the plain. The road from Shobak to Akaba, is tolerably good, and might, Burckhardt says, be rendered practicable even for artillery;†

6

* Irby and Mangles, p. 380. The Writer remarks, that the supposed church has the more the air of Mohammedan than of Christian architecture: the interior is in the pure Gothic style; the door-way is in the genuine Oriental taste.

In the Description of Syria, vol. ii, 78, the Syrian Hadji route was given as far as the termination of the Djebel Haouran. The sixth day's journey is from Kalaat el Żerka to Kaiaat el Belka, to the west of which the Djebel Belka terminates. Seventh day, to Kalaat el Katrane, which is also one day S. E. of Kerek. Eighth day, to Kalaat el Hassa, in a wady of the same name, running westward, which discharges its waters, in the rainy season, into the Sheriat el Kebir (Jordan). Ninth day, half a day's journey to Kalaat Aeneze. Tenth day, half a day's journey to Maan, where the hadjis rest two days. Eleventh day, to Akeba Esshami. Here, the elevated plain eastward of the Djebel Shera, terminates by a steep, rocky descent, at the bottom of which begins the desert of Nedjed, covered, for the most part, with flints. It is this upper plain, together with the mountains of Shera, Djebal, Kerek, and Belka, which formed, Burckhardt thinks, that natural division of the country to which the name of Arabia Petræa was applied. Though once thickly populous, it is now all a desert, and Maan is the only inhabited town. the castles on the Syrian hadji route, from Fedhein to Medinah, are deserted.

All

From Akaba, the twelfth day's journey is to Kalaat Medawara. Thirteenth day, to Dzat Hadji, a castle surrounded with wells and palm-trees. Fourteenth day, at four hours, a difficult descent, called El Araye or Kalaat Ammar, leads from the sandy plain to a tract covered with white earth, extending to Kalaat Tebouk, where the hadji rests one day.

but he struck out of this road to the westward, to
visit Wady Mousa, and the tomb of Aaron on Mount
Hor.

Upon the summit of the mountain over which the
road from Shobak passes, near the spot where it di-
verges from the great road to Akaba, are numerous
small heaps of stones, indicating so many sacrifices to
Haroun; the Arabs, who vow to slaughter a victim to
Haroun, deeming it sufficient to proceed as far as this
place, whence the dome of his tomb is visible, and
after killing the animal, they throw a heap of stones
over the blood which flows to the ground. Ain Moosa*

Fifteenth day, from Tebouk to Kalaat Akhdar. Sixteenth
day, a very long march to El Moadham. Seventeenth day,

to Dar El Hamra. Eighteenth, to Medain Szaleh, where
are excavations and sculptured figures. Nineteenth day, to El
Olla, a village of 250 houses, with a rivulet and orchards.
The next three days, the halting places are merely wells,
Bir el Ghanam, Bir Zemeriod, and Bir Djedeide. The
twenty-third, to Wady Hedye, coming from Khaibar, which
is four hours distant (see page 72): here the caravan remains
two days, and the people often go to Khaibar to buy frech
provisions. Twenty-fourth, to El Fahletein, where apes and
tigers are said to be met with, and where is an ancient building
of black stones, called Stabel Antar. Twenty-fifth, to Bir
Naszeif. Twenty-sixth, to Medinah.

From Medinah, there are two routes to Mekka. The east-
ern route is, 1. El Khona, a deep wady. 2. El Dereybe, a
walled village. 3. Sefyne, a village. 4. El Kobab, wells.
5. Bir el Hedjar, wells. 6. Set Zebeyde, a ruined village.
7. El Makrouka, wells. 8. Wady Leimoun, a village and
rivulet. 9. Bir el Baghle, wells. 10. Mekka.—The west-
ern road is, 1. Bir Ali, a village with gardens. 2. El Sho-
hada, no water. 3. Djideida (see page 274). 4. Beder,
the scene of Mohammed's famous victory (see p. 69): it con-
tains upwards of 500 houses, with a rivulet. The Egyptian
hadji here generally meets the Syrian. 5. El Kaa, no water.
6. El Akdyd, twenty-eight hours from Beder. 7. Rabagh
(Arabok), a village. 8. Khalyz, a village and rivulet. 9. El
Szafan, wells.
10. Wady Fatima, a village with rivulet and

gardens. 11. Mekka.

* Probably the same as Mosera, Deut. x, 6.

is a copious spring, rushing from under a rock at the eastern extremity of the wady. It is about seven hours from Shobak. There are no ruins near the spring, but, a little lower down, is a mill, and above it the deserted village of Badabde, formerly inhabited by Greek Christians, who retired to Kerek. Proceeding along the brook for above twenty minutes, the valley opens into a plain, about a quarter of an hour in length and ten minutes in breadth, in which the stream of Ain Moosa is joined by a mountain rivulet from the southward. Upon the declivity of the mountain, in the angle formed by their junction, stands Eldjy, the principal village of Wady Mousa, containing between 2 and 300 houses, enclosed with a stone wall, with three regular gates. It is inhabited by the Lyathene Arabs, part of whom encamp during the whole year in the neighbouring mountains. It is most picturesquely situated; the slopes of the mountain are formed into terraces covered with corn-fields and orchards, which are well irrigated by the two rivulets and numerous smaller springs; and a few large hewn stones and blocks of beautiful marble dispersed over the present town, indicate it to be the site of an ancient city. Pursuing the rivulet of Eldjy westward, the valley soon narrows again; and here a scene of wonder soon opens on the traveller, for the description of which we shall avail ourselves of the unpublished travels of Captains the Hon. C. L. Irby and James Mangles, who visited Wady Mousa, in company with Mr Bankes and Mr Legh, in 1818.

'Some hundred yards below the spring, begins the outskirts of the vast necropolis of Petra. Many doorways are visible, upon different levels, cut in the side of the mountain, which, toward this part, begins to assume a more rugged aspect. The most remarkable tombs stand near the road, which follows the course of the brook. The first of these is cut in a mass of whitish rock, which is in some measure insulated and