DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0086
A RECORD.
73
temple. Ascending several broad steps, we en-
tered under a colonnade of four Corinthian columns^,
about thirty-five feet high, into a large chamber of
some fifty feet square, and twenty-five feet high.
The outside of the temple is richly ornamented^
but the interior is perfectly plain, there being no-
ornament of any kind upon the walls or ceiling ;
on each of the three sides is a small chamber for
the reception of the dead ; and on the back wall of
the innermost chamber I saw the names of Messrs..
Legh, Banks, Irby, and- Mangles, the four Eng-
lish travellers who with so much difficulty had
effected their entrance to the city," of Messieurs La-
borde and Linant, and the two Englishmen and
Italian of whom I have before spoken ; and two or
three others, which, from the character of the wri-
ting, I supposed to be the names of attendants
upon some of these gentlemen. These were the
only names recorded in the temple ; and, besides
Burckhardt, no other traveller had ever reached it.
I was the first' American who had ever been there..
Many of my countrymen, probably, as was the
case with me, have never known the existence of
such a city ; and independently of all personal con-
siderations, I confess that I felt what I trust was not
an inexcusable pride, in writing upon the inner-
most wall of that temple the name of an American
citizen; and under it, and flourishing on its own
account in temples,, and tombs, and all the most
conspicuous places in Petra, is the illustrious nana©;
©f Paulo Nuozzo,.. dragomano..
73
temple. Ascending several broad steps, we en-
tered under a colonnade of four Corinthian columns^,
about thirty-five feet high, into a large chamber of
some fifty feet square, and twenty-five feet high.
The outside of the temple is richly ornamented^
but the interior is perfectly plain, there being no-
ornament of any kind upon the walls or ceiling ;
on each of the three sides is a small chamber for
the reception of the dead ; and on the back wall of
the innermost chamber I saw the names of Messrs..
Legh, Banks, Irby, and- Mangles, the four Eng-
lish travellers who with so much difficulty had
effected their entrance to the city," of Messieurs La-
borde and Linant, and the two Englishmen and
Italian of whom I have before spoken ; and two or
three others, which, from the character of the wri-
ting, I supposed to be the names of attendants
upon some of these gentlemen. These were the
only names recorded in the temple ; and, besides
Burckhardt, no other traveller had ever reached it.
I was the first' American who had ever been there..
Many of my countrymen, probably, as was the
case with me, have never known the existence of
such a city ; and independently of all personal con-
siderations, I confess that I felt what I trust was not
an inexcusable pride, in writing upon the inner-
most wall of that temple the name of an American
citizen; and under it, and flourishing on its own
account in temples,, and tombs, and all the most
conspicuous places in Petra, is the illustrious nana©;
©f Paulo Nuozzo,.. dragomano..