Their Most Common Form Is
That Of A Truncated Pyramid, And As They Are Made To Project One Or Two
Feet From The Body Of The Rock They Have The Appearance, When Seen At A
Distance, Of Insulated Structures.
On each side of the front is
generally a pilaster, and the door is seldom without some elegant
ornaments.
These fronts resemble those of several of the tombs of Palmyra,
[p.427] but the latter are not excavated in the rock, but constructed
with hewn stones. I do not think, however, that there are two sepulchres
in Wady Mousa perfectly alike; on the contrary, they vary greatly in
size, shape, and embellishments. In some places, three sepulchres are
excavated one over the other, and the side of the mountain is so
perpendicular that it seems impossible to approach the uppermost, no
path whatever being visible; some of the lower have a few steps before
their entrance.
In continuing a little farther among the sepulchres, the valley widens
to about one hundred and fifty yards in breadth. Here to the left is a
theatre cut entirely out of the rock, with all its benches. It may be
capable of containing about three thousand spectators: its area is now
filled up with gravel, which the winter torrent brings down. The
entrance of many of the sepulchres is in like manner almost choked up.
There are no remains of columns near the theatre. Following the stream
about one hundred and fifty paces further, the rocks open still farther,
and I issued upon a plain two hundred and fifty or three hundred yards
across, bordered by heights of more gradual ascent than before.
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