Hi Lowell,

I just love the historical parts of your reports. It brings a humanness to otherwise grim statistics.

Last night MS NBC broadcast their evening news show from Petra, Jordan. The audience was kept in check through a number of commericals for the final view which was to see the room inside of the Treasury Building. This is probably the most advertised structure.

Of course I stayed glued to the set so I could have a look at one place that so far I had not seen any photos of and I was not disappointed. The Treasury Building has a very large central room and at the front edge of the room there is a place where sacrifices were made in the past. The ceilings in this room are at least 30 feet high and there were three doorways. The center rear doorway was to the tomb of the King and there were tombs for both of his wives on the left and right sides.

Starting with a view to the right side of the room at the doorway to wife #1's tomb was a crack from an ancient earthquake. It traveled up the doorway to the ceiling, around the room and came down on the outer side of wife #2's tomb. That was rather novel.

In the central courtyard just in front of the building a part of an urn turned upside down had been thrown there from this ancient earthquake and though the upper structure was repaired, they left the urn in place.

While the reporter thought these flaws should be repaired, considering The City of Petra is one of the top 100 historic sites in the world, I for one am glad they left it alone. Its a good reminder for earthquake preparedness.

She added that it is believed the Moses walked through this area on his journey south.

Thanks for the historical reports, they are so good.

Petra