Image from page 182 of “The Jordan valley and Petra” (1905)
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Identifier: jordanvalleype02libb
Title: The Jordan valley and Petra
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Libbey, William, 1855- Hoskins, Franklin Evans, joint author
Subjects:
Publisher: New York London, G. P. Putnam’s sons
Contributing Library: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
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wrote Stephens many years ago, thestillness of a ruined city is nowhere so impressiveas when sitting on the steps of its theatre : oncethronged with the pleasure-seeking crowds, butnow given up to solitude and desolation. Dayafter day these seats had been filled and thenow silent rocks had re-echoed to the applaudingshouts of thousands ; and little could an ancientEdomite imagine that a solitary stranger, from athen unknown world, would one day be wanderingamong the ruins of his proud and wonderful city,meditating upon the fate of a race that has for agespassed away. Where are ye, inhabitants of thisdesolate city ? Ye who once sat on the seats ofthis theatre, the young, the high-born, the beautiful,the brave ; who once rejoiced in your riches andpower, and lived as if there were no grave ? Whereare ye now ? Even the very tombs, whose opendoors are stretching away in long ranges before theeyes of the wondering traveller, cannot reveal themystery of your doom ; your dry bones are gone ;
Text Appearing After Image:
i6s Petra—On the Road to the First High Placenear the Treasury Theatre—Fairy Dell and High Place 167 the robber has invaded your graves, and your veryashes have been swept away to make room for thewandering Arab of the desert. Again we passed into the defile whose rockybanks are strewn with the fragments of the ancientcity ; again we gazed upon the tiers of the rock cut-tings, the broken stairways, the ruin wrought bymasses shaken loose by the earthquake, until westood spellbound once more in front of the Treas-ury. Each visit seems to enhance its beauties,and deepen the charm of its silent glories — itspower was the same but changed, as seen at sun-rise, at sunset, in the shower, or in the blaze ofnoonday. None of the guide-books or records of formertravellers had spoken of a road leading up the fissureto the left of the Treasury. The dense growth ofoleander in the floor of the opening and the treesand bushes among the rocks hide one of the mostcharming bits in Petra, which we
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