HISTORIC PETRA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4010, 17 August 1915, Page 2

HISTORIC PETRA.

Petra, lost city, and called by the tew white, travellers who have seen, it one ot the wonders of the world, lies in the Arabian wilderness, a shadow of its once princely self. Almost forgotten, it is, believed by historians and archaeologists to have boon the place where the children of Israel lingered for twenty years when they were on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. Although it is believed to have contained at one time a population of half a million, it is • now one of the interesting place of which explore, s know comparatively little. It lias no modern history and, strange as it may seem, it lay absolutely torgotten, as far as Europe was concerned, lor fourteen cerituries. In the centuries long passed; Petra, was an important trading station for the caravans that moved between .Persia, and Egypt, and India and tlio Holy Land and Syria. It is built in a, colossal bowl of pink, and its palaces, temples, and tombs are carved out of solid rock. .Certainly some of its carvings are GOOD years old. Its walls preserve the history of architecture, for its structures date from the days of cave men to the magnificent buildings of Greece and Rome. To-day Petra has about thirty inhabitants. They keep a few goats, go beyond' their city into the desert to trade, with passing- caravans, and, altogether, lead a miserable life. Nominally the city of Petra is a. personal possession of the Sultan of Turkey, ami it is theoretically against the law to remove anything without his permission. But there is nobody to stand watch and guard the historio treasures Every traveller helps .himself, and the natives assist him in his search, hoping to derive a few cents for their labor.