labour; but to form it thus from a rocky substance is an enterprise still more astonishing. The benches, though worn by use and by the waters which run over them from the heights, are pretty well preserved, and permit an accurate plan to be taken of the interior. The situation of the stage may be easily ascertained; and we saw also several bases of columns, the original position of which it was not difficult to conjecture. But what surprised us most was the selection of such a spot for a place of amusement, considering the prospect it afforded on all sides of death and its mansions, which touch the very sides of the theatre. What a strange habit of mind the people of Petra must have possessed, thus to familiarise themselves so constantly to the idea of death, as Mithridates accustomed himself to poison in order to render himself insensible to its effects!

M. Linant took the same view from a greater distance by ascending the ravine. I have endeavoured to preserve in this design the character of the original, although it differs from the preceding view in some points. Funeral monuments are seen on all sides decorating the rocks from the base to the summit. On the left hand steps are cut in a ravine which lead to a fortress and to other tombs. As an excursion to them would take us to a distance from the Fellahs, we felt no difficulty in postponing it to another day.

Behind the mass of rocks which are seen to the right, there is a tomb that may be considered as

a model of the style which chiefly prevails among the monuments of Petra. I shall not here undertake to settle the points of resemblance which might determine their general architectural style; it will be sufficient to exhibit this tomb as a type of those monuments, and they are by far the most numerous, which do not owe their origin to the domination or the taste of the Romans.

The principal entrance to Petra is through a narrow ravine cut through the rocks, and bordered on each side by superb tombs.

This ravine, so curious in its conformation, was

TOMBS WITH GREEK INSCRIPTION.

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produced, doubtless, in the first instance, by some interior movement, but completed and rendered regular by the influence of torrents, which have formed similar channels in all parts of Arabia Petræa. The natural conformation of the valley and of this opening to it sufficiently explains the cause of its having been selected as a suitable place for a city. In the remote ages, when men were engaged in perpetual wars, and plunder was the order of the day, it was no small advantage to a community to find a position which presented a considerable surface enriched by an abundant stream, and hemmed in by a girdle of rocks, to which there was no ingress, except through a ravine so narrow that a few men, stationed on the top of the mountain, might prevent any enemy, however numerous, from effecting an entrance into the town. When the Nabatheans grew to be a powerful people, the importance of this position became more obvious, as they had to guard themselves not only against the jealousy of the neighbouring tribes, but also against the desire of conquest, which animated more distant nations.

We perceived two tombs on the left, which are distinguishable from the others by a peculiar style, as well as by a Greek inscription, engraved in large characters on the architrave. An interpretation of this inscription would be the more valuable, inasmuch as all those which were originally traced on the funereal monuments of Petra are effaced by time; but I have hitherto failed in my endeavours to decipher these characters, and seve