DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0087
74
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
Leaving the temple and the open area on which
it fronts, and following the stream, we entered an-
other defile much broader than the first, on each
side of which wTere ranges of tombs, with sculp-
tured doors and columns ; and on the left, in the
bosom of the mountain, hewn out of the solid rock,
is a large theatre, circular in form, the pillars in
front fallen, and containing thirty-three rows of
seats, capable of containing more than 3000 per-
sons. Above the corridor was a range of doors
opening to chambers in the rocks, the seats of the
princes and wealthiest inhabitants of Petra, and not
unlike a row of private boxes in a modern theatre.
The whole theatre is at this day in such a state
of preservation, that if the tenants of the tombs
around could once more rise into life, they might
take their old places on its seats, and listen to the
declamation of their favourite player. To me the
stillness of a ruined city is nowhere so impressive
as when sitting on the steps of its theatre; once
thronged with the gay and pleasure-seeking, but
now given up to solitude and desolation. Day af-
ter day these seats had been filled, and the now
silent rocks had echoed to the applauding shouts
of thousands ; and little could an ancient Edomite
imagine that a solitary stranger, from a then un-
known world, would one day be wandering among
the ruins of his proud and wonderful city, medita-
ting upon the fate of a race that has for ages passed
away. Where are ye, inhabitants of this desolate
city 1 ye who once sat on the seats of this theatre,
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
Leaving the temple and the open area on which
it fronts, and following the stream, we entered an-
other defile much broader than the first, on each
side of which wTere ranges of tombs, with sculp-
tured doors and columns ; and on the left, in the
bosom of the mountain, hewn out of the solid rock,
is a large theatre, circular in form, the pillars in
front fallen, and containing thirty-three rows of
seats, capable of containing more than 3000 per-
sons. Above the corridor was a range of doors
opening to chambers in the rocks, the seats of the
princes and wealthiest inhabitants of Petra, and not
unlike a row of private boxes in a modern theatre.
The whole theatre is at this day in such a state
of preservation, that if the tenants of the tombs
around could once more rise into life, they might
take their old places on its seats, and listen to the
declamation of their favourite player. To me the
stillness of a ruined city is nowhere so impressive
as when sitting on the steps of its theatre; once
thronged with the gay and pleasure-seeking, but
now given up to solitude and desolation. Day af-
ter day these seats had been filled, and the now
silent rocks had echoed to the applauding shouts
of thousands ; and little could an ancient Edomite
imagine that a solitary stranger, from a then un-
known world, would one day be wandering among
the ruins of his proud and wonderful city, medita-
ting upon the fate of a race that has for ages passed
away. Where are ye, inhabitants of this desolate
city 1 ye who once sat on the seats of this theatre,