IX. MAN IN ARID LANDS: NORTH FROM JIDDAH
547
In a sense this is very sad. There are not many regions like this left
in the world—isolated, peaceful, undisturbed by the probings of the scientist and the browsings of the tourist, and retaining that certain aura of
mystery and legend that the modern world so rarely has room for any
more.
That, however, is in the future. Tonight Mada'in Salih is still inviolate,
still shrouded in legend and touched with romance. Which is why, a few
minutes from now, I think I shall take a final look around. From the west
there is a cool wind blowing across the sands and in the sky the moon
is getting brighter. I think I'll just walk and listen in the stillness. You
never know what you might hear—the cry of a lamed camel for instance,
or the deep ominous thunder of an ancient earthquake or—who knows—
maybe even a baby camel on a dark ridge crying faintly for a mother who
will never come. . .
Notes on the Nabateans
Thomas C. Barger
In 312 B.c., about 10 years after the death of Alexander the Great,
a Greek general who had served with Alexander led an expedition against
a city called Petra in what is now Jordan. He captured the main fortress,
looted it, and retired with the city's treasure. As he retreated, however,
the defenders of the city counterattacked in an unexpected night raid,
massacred the Greeks, and recaptured the treasure. The defenders were
called Nabateans, and this was their first appearance in recorded history.
Who were the Nabateans? To give an exact answer is difficult; reliable
information about them is sketchy. After their initial appearance, for example, they dropped out of historical sight until about 169 B.C., nearly
a century and a half later. And even then there is only an unexplained
reference to their capture of a certain high priest. Again there is a period
of silence until about 100 B.C. when they began to appear with more frequency—in their own inscriptions as well as in Roman, Greek, and Jewish
sources. Their period of prominence was so short, however, that much
of what is believed today has been pieced together as much from conjecture as from evidence.
Apparently the Nabateans were of Arab origin, probably Bedouins out
of the Arabian desert, who settled, at least for a time, in a wild, mountainous land south of the Dead Sea and clustered around what is famous
today as the "rose-red city" of Petra, a city carved from sandstone and
guarded on its eastern approach by a narrow, easily defended defile and
a fortress on an immense rock that could be reached only by a single,
547
In a sense this is very sad. There are not many regions like this left
in the world—isolated, peaceful, undisturbed by the probings of the scientist and the browsings of the tourist, and retaining that certain aura of
mystery and legend that the modern world so rarely has room for any
more.
That, however, is in the future. Tonight Mada'in Salih is still inviolate,
still shrouded in legend and touched with romance. Which is why, a few
minutes from now, I think I shall take a final look around. From the west
there is a cool wind blowing across the sands and in the sky the moon
is getting brighter. I think I'll just walk and listen in the stillness. You
never know what you might hear—the cry of a lamed camel for instance,
or the deep ominous thunder of an ancient earthquake or—who knows—
maybe even a baby camel on a dark ridge crying faintly for a mother who
will never come. . .
Notes on the Nabateans
Thomas C. Barger
In 312 B.c., about 10 years after the death of Alexander the Great,
a Greek general who had served with Alexander led an expedition against
a city called Petra in what is now Jordan. He captured the main fortress,
looted it, and retired with the city's treasure. As he retreated, however,
the defenders of the city counterattacked in an unexpected night raid,
massacred the Greeks, and recaptured the treasure. The defenders were
called Nabateans, and this was their first appearance in recorded history.
Who were the Nabateans? To give an exact answer is difficult; reliable
information about them is sketchy. After their initial appearance, for example, they dropped out of historical sight until about 169 B.C., nearly
a century and a half later. And even then there is only an unexplained
reference to their capture of a certain high priest. Again there is a period
of silence until about 100 B.C. when they began to appear with more frequency—in their own inscriptions as well as in Roman, Greek, and Jewish
sources. Their period of prominence was so short, however, that much
of what is believed today has been pieced together as much from conjecture as from evidence.
Apparently the Nabateans were of Arab origin, probably Bedouins out
of the Arabian desert, who settled, at least for a time, in a wild, mountainous land south of the Dead Sea and clustered around what is famous
today as the "rose-red city" of Petra, a city carved from sandstone and
guarded on its eastern approach by a narrow, easily defended defile and
a fortress on an immense rock that could be reached only by a single,