the city at the distance of three hundred stadia south of the Dead sea. Strabo says it is three or four days' march from Jericho. Pliny describes it as 600 Roman miles distant from Gaza, and 130 from the Persian gulf; where Cellarius justly suggests, that the two numbers are to be transposed, since they will thus nearly accord with the other accounts.126 The Tabula Peut. places Petra about eighty Roman miles northward from Ailah; and this accords entirely with Burckhardt's statement respecting Wady Mousa, that it is "two long days' journey northeast from Akaba."127 However inaccurate the above specifications may be in themselves, they are yet sufficiently definite to lead us to the decisive conclusion, that Petra could not have been situated at any great distance from Wady Mousa ; and least of all could it have occupied the site of the modern Kerek.128 Indeed, the whole description of Wady Mousa, as given by the travellers whose accounts we are about to copy, coincides so exactly with the site of Petra as described by Strabo and Pliny above, that a doubt can hardly remain of their identity. To all this is still to be added the testimony of Josephus and Eusebius, that Mount Hor, where Aaron died, was in the vicinity of Petra; as even now it rears its head above the lonely vale of Wady Mousa.129

At what period Petra yielded to the assaults of the plundering hordes of the desert, and sunk into desolation and ruin, it is impossible to determine. It must probably have fallen some centuries before the crusades; for had it then existed in its former importance, it could hardly have escaped the notice of the christian warriors of those days. Indeed, this region was at that time full of ruined places; and Mons Regalis or Shobak was only rebuilt by king Baldwin I, on the site of an ancient fortress.130 The first notice of Petra in modern times, seems to

126 Diod. Sic. XIX. 98. Strabo XVI. 4. 21. Plin. Hist. Nat. VI. 28 or 32. Mannert l. c. p. 137. Cellarius 1. c. II. p. 581. Other specifications of distance are also collected by Reland, p. 929, 930. 127 See the extract from Burckhardt on the following page. 128 This has been assumed in modern times; see p. 286 below. 129 Jos. Ant. IV. 4.7. Euseb. Onomast. Art. 29, ogos év & televtặ Ααρών, πλησίον Πέτρας πόλεως. Jerome's Vers. “OR, mons in quo mortuus est Aäron juxta civitatem Petram."

130 See p. 269 above.

have been the imperfect accounts received by Seetzen at Jerusalem and Kerek, respecting a place called Bedra; from which he rightly conjectured that the ruins of Petra were to be sought in Wady Mousa. An Arab from that region said to him: "Ah! how I always weep, when I behold the ruins of Wady Mousa, and especially those of Faroun!" Seetzen did not himself visit the spot; but his conjecture has been amply verified by Burckhardt, and the English travellers of Mr Legh's company.131

131 The following brief summary of Burckhardt's observations upon Wady Mousa, made by himself before writing out the fuller accounts of his published Travels, may properly be given in this connexion. It is extracted from a letter written by him to the Secretary of the African Institution, dated Cairo, Sept. 12, 1812, and prefixed to the volume of his Travels in Nubia, etc. See also Calmet's Dict. Art. CANAAN, p. 237 sq. "At the distance of a two long days' journey northeast from Akaba, is a rivulet and valley in the Djebel Shera, on the east side of the Araba, called Wady Mousa. This place is very interesting for its antiquities and the remains of an ancient city, which I conjecture to be Petra, the capital of Arabia Petraea, a place which, as far as I know, no European traveller has ever visited. In the red sand-stone of which the valley is composed, are upwards of two hundred and fifty sepulchres, entirely cut out of the rock, the greater part of them with Grecian ornaments. There is a mausoleum in the shape of a temple, of colossal dimensions, likewise cut out of the rock, with all its apartments, its vestibule, peristyle, etc. It is a most beautiful specimen of Grecian architecture, and in perfect preservation. There are other mausolea with obelisks, apparently in the Egyptian style, a whole amphitheatre cut out of the rock, with the remains of a palace and of several temples. Upon the summit of the mountain which closes the narrow valley on its western side, is the tomb of Haroun (Aaron). It is held in great veneration by the Arabs. (If I recollect right, there is a passage in Eusebius, in which he says that the tomb of Aaron was situated near Petra.) The information of Pliny and Strabo on the site of Petra, agree with the position of Wady Mousa. I regretted most sensibly that I was not in circumstances that admitted of my observing these antiquities in all their details, but it was necessary for my safety not to inspire the Arabs with suspicions that might probably have impeded the progress of my journey; for I was an unprotected stranger, known to be a townsman, and thus an object of constant curiosity to the Bedouins, who watched all my steps in order to know why I had preferred that road to Egypt, to the shorter one along the Mediterranean coast."

The city of KEREK occupies in modern times so important a place in all that has reference to the country east and south of the Dead sea, that a particular notice of it cannot well be omitted here; although it belonged not to the territory of Idumea, but rather to Moab. Still, as it was at the southern extremity of the latter country, and especially as it is at the present day the chief place of the whole region, and the headquarters of all travellers who penetrate into those countries, a description of it most appropriately belongs to an Introduction like the present.

In the Old Testament, besides the proper capital of the Moabites, Ar, or Ar-Moab, Num. 21: 15,28. Is. 15: 1; we find mention of another important Moabitish city, in, Kir-Moab, i. e. the wall or rather fortress of Moab, Is. 15: 1. This is doubtless the same place which is elsewhere spoken of under the name of p, Kir Heres, Jer. 48: 31, 36; and nyan, Kir Hereseth, Is. 16: 7. 2 K. 3: 25; i. e. wall or fortress of brick or pottery. In this last passage, Jehoram king of Israel, in company with Jehoshaphat king of Judah and the king of Edom, is said to have captured the city and destroyed it, except the walls. From the later notices of the prophets above cited, it would appear to have been rebuilt, and to have become a principal fortress of the country. In Is. 15: 1, the Chaldee translator has rendered in by in, pron. Krakka d'Moab, which passed over into the Greek Xaoaza 2 Macc. 12: 17; and also Χαρακμώβα or Characmoba, Χάραξ or Charax, by which name the city was known to the Greek and Roman writers, and is mentioned by Pliny, Ptolemy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Stephen of Byzantium,132 as belonging to Arabia Petraea or Palaestina Tertia. In the early centuries of the christian era, Characmoba was an important episcopal city, and the names of its bishops appear in the councils of those days; e. g. Demetrius was at the council of Jerusalem, A. D. 536.133 This ancient name, as well as the city itself, is easily to be recognized in the modern Kerek, Karak, or K'rak, of the Arabs, which also signifies a fortress; and is the name of the chief place of the country eastward of the Dead sea, situated nearly due east from its southern extremity. During the period of the crusades, a fortress was built here by the

132 Reland, p. 705. Charax Omanorum, Plin. H. N. VI. 28 or 32. 133 Reland, p. 533. Comp. p. 212, 217. VOL. III. No. 10. 37

Christians, which became of great importance and was subjected to several fierce assaults, to which we have already sufficiently alluded.134 Abulfeda, in the fourteenth century, describes Khrakh or Kerek as a small walled city, with a castle, situated on a lofty hill, and so strong that no one could indulge the hope of taking it. In the valley beneath, there are warm baths and gardens. 135 Some of the historians of the crusades have also given to this city, or rather to the country around it, the appellation of Petra Deserti;136 and hence doubtless has arisen in modern times the error, by which Kerek has sometimes been regarded as corresponding to the ancient Petra.137

Of modern travellers, Seetzen was the first to visit Kerek, but did not proceed any farther south.138 He was followed by Burckhardt in 1812, who spent twenty days in the city, and has given a very full description of it. Mr Legh and his companions also passed several days in Kerek.

134 See p. 270 above.

135 Abulfedae Tab. Syr. ed. Koehler. p. 89. Schultens Vita Salad. Index Geogr. Art. Caracha.

136 Thus William of Tyre says of Krak, that it is the chief place of Arabia Secunda i. e. Petracensis, lib. XXII. c. 2, 5; and in c. 28 he affirms that Caracha, i. e. Krak or Kerek, is the same as Petra Deserti. So Schultens Vit. Salad. Index Geogr. Art. Caracha. In an ecclesiastical Notitia appended by Holstein to the Eccl. Geogr. of Sancto Paulo, p. 59, we find Palestine divided into four sedes, of which the third is "Arabia Moabitis, id est Petra Deserti," which had under it thirteen bishop's sees, one of which is that of Karach. This Notitia is probably later than the time of the crusades; as it speaks of Mons Regalis as a bishopric, having under it the Greek bishop of Mount Sinai. Reland p. 222, 223.

137 The same causes which occasioned this historical error, probably gave rise to the similiar traditional one, by which the present diocese of Kerek is called in Arabic Battra and in Greek Ilέrgas, as stated by Burckhardt in his account of Kerek. See below, and Travels p. 387. Comp. Calmet's Dict. Art. SELA.

138 The brief account of Seetzen may properly stand here as introductory to those of the other travellers. "Just before Karrak (Kerek) the wide plain which stretches from Rabbah, terminates; on this are scattered only some hills and low mountains, and the country now becomes more mountainous. [Burckhardt travelled from Rabbah five hours, and then entered a mountainous district, full of Wadys; he reached Kerek in six hours from Rabbah. Travels p. 377.] Karrak, formerly a city and the seat of a bishop, lies

We here bring to a conclusion this account of the history and geography of ancient Idumea, introductory to copious extracts from the Travels of Burckhardt and Legh in those regions. The investigation has extended itself to a much greater length, and has demanded a far greater amount of time and labour, than could at first have been foreseen. Still, it has proved very attractive to the writer; and should it afford gratification to the reader, and at the same time serve to cast light on any dark passages of the sacred volume, the writer's purpose will have been accomplished, and his best hopes fulfilled. Should articles of this class appear to be generally acceptable and useful to the readers of this work, we may hereafter proceed to survey in like manner, though less in detail, the regions east of the Jordan and north of Idumea, viz. Moab, Gilead, Auranitis or the Haouran, etc. of whose ancient history little is known to the common reader of the Bible; and which, in modern times, have been visited and explored by Seetzen, Burckhardt, Buckingham, and others. These regions are full of stately and often splendid ruins, the remains of cities which were flourishing and powerful in the time of our Saviour, and which are often alluded to in the New Testament. But the darkness of the middle ages spread a thick veil over them, which it was left for the activity of modern enterprise and research first to rend away.

The extracts from Burckhardt and Legh will be given in our next numbers.

on the summit of a high hill, at the beginning of a deep valley, and is on all sides surrounded by higher mountains. The hill on which it stands is very steep, and in many places perpendicular. The walls of the city have mostly fallen down; and Karrak can now justly lay claim to nothing more than the name of a town or village. The ruined and untenanted castle was formerly one of the most important in these regions. The inhabitants of the town consist of Mohammedans and Greek Christians. The present bishop of Karrak lives in Jerusalem. Through the Wady Karrak, there is a charming prospect, including a part of the Dead sea and also Jerusalem, which in clear weather may be distinctly seen. The hill on which Karrak lies, is composed of limestone, and a soft white chalk, with many layers of flint, of black, blue, gray, and other colours. In the rocks in the vicinity of the place are very many artificial grottoes. Wheat is sometimes preserved here for ten years in subterraneons caverns. Zach's Monatl. Corresp. XVIII. p. 434. Rosenmueller's Bibl. Geogr. III. p. 59 sq.