544
PAUL F. HOYE
that the tombs of Mada'in Salih have a "provincial" look to them and
suggested that the artisans who worked on the tombs merely copied or
adopted certain simple Roman and Greek designs. I agree. Once the first
excitement of seeing them has subsided it's clear that the tombs gain much
of their attraction from their inaccessibility and the magnificence of their
settings; as works of art the imposing facades promise much more than
they contain.
After visiting the rest of the tombs on the east side—there are 64 in
all, 22 of them in the Kasr al-Bint butte—I made a rough map of all the
sites and then examined it carefully to see if they formed some pattern
that might indicate which were done first or explain why one rock face
was chosen over another, or why one decoration was applied to Tomb
A and an entirely different decoration to Tomb B. But I found nothing.
Moody, incidentally, climbed to the "bower" itself, a tomb carved on
a ledge some 300 feet up in the air. There, goes a legend, a girl's lover
was killed by the girl's father for the usual reasons. Moody, looking for
a good spot from which to photograph the tombs on the west side of the
valley, found an easy way up at the south end—the same one apparently
that Charles M. Doughty mentions in his "Travels in Arabia Déserta." He
says it leads across the face to just above the Maiden's Bower. He also
says there are some burial niches cut into the rock right out in the open.
MARCH 7
We began checking the tombs on the west side this morning. There are
more than I thought, many tucked away in little culs-de-sac or cut into
small isolated formations. These over here are apparently exposed to the
wind; they're badly eroded and in several places are almost obliterated.
Unless there are any tombs I haven't seen—and since I made a rather
wide sweep in all directions, I doubt it—there are 111 tombs in Mada'in
Salih. The total is probably higher, but I eliminated five that were so
badly eroded they might have been natural caves.
MARCH 8
The only trouble with Mada'in Salih is that there's too much to see and
time is running out.
Moody, for example, has just been told by a Bedouin that there is a
large formation near here literally covered with inscriptions. Obviously,
we'll have to go see it. Also we want to inspect the ancient wells, especially
those dug out recently by Bedouins in search of more water for crops.
And, of course, there's still the Mountain of the Camel.
PAUL F. HOYE
that the tombs of Mada'in Salih have a "provincial" look to them and
suggested that the artisans who worked on the tombs merely copied or
adopted certain simple Roman and Greek designs. I agree. Once the first
excitement of seeing them has subsided it's clear that the tombs gain much
of their attraction from their inaccessibility and the magnificence of their
settings; as works of art the imposing facades promise much more than
they contain.
After visiting the rest of the tombs on the east side—there are 64 in
all, 22 of them in the Kasr al-Bint butte—I made a rough map of all the
sites and then examined it carefully to see if they formed some pattern
that might indicate which were done first or explain why one rock face
was chosen over another, or why one decoration was applied to Tomb
A and an entirely different decoration to Tomb B. But I found nothing.
Moody, incidentally, climbed to the "bower" itself, a tomb carved on
a ledge some 300 feet up in the air. There, goes a legend, a girl's lover
was killed by the girl's father for the usual reasons. Moody, looking for
a good spot from which to photograph the tombs on the west side of the
valley, found an easy way up at the south end—the same one apparently
that Charles M. Doughty mentions in his "Travels in Arabia Déserta." He
says it leads across the face to just above the Maiden's Bower. He also
says there are some burial niches cut into the rock right out in the open.
MARCH 7
We began checking the tombs on the west side this morning. There are
more than I thought, many tucked away in little culs-de-sac or cut into
small isolated formations. These over here are apparently exposed to the
wind; they're badly eroded and in several places are almost obliterated.
Unless there are any tombs I haven't seen—and since I made a rather
wide sweep in all directions, I doubt it—there are 111 tombs in Mada'in
Salih. The total is probably higher, but I eliminated five that were so
badly eroded they might have been natural caves.
MARCH 8
The only trouble with Mada'in Salih is that there's too much to see and
time is running out.
Moody, for example, has just been told by a Bedouin that there is a
large formation near here literally covered with inscriptions. Obviously,
we'll have to go see it. Also we want to inspect the ancient wells, especially
those dug out recently by Bedouins in search of more water for crops.
And, of course, there's still the Mountain of the Camel.