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It is impossible to conceive any thing more aweful or sublime than such an approach [to the ancient city]: the width [of the desert canyon] is not more than just sufficient for the passage of two horsemen abreast; the sides are in all parts perpendicular, varying from 400 to 700 feet in height; ... and there is little more light than in a cavern.... We followed this half subterranean passage for the space of nearly two miles, the sides increasing in height as the path continually descended.
--Charles Leonard Irby and James Mangles, Travels in Egypt and Nubia, Syria and the Holy Land (London, 1868), quoted in Petra: A Travellers' Guide, by Rosalyn Maqsood
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