course of the Euphrates, or of passing through the plains of Mesopotamia. The southern, or rather the southern and eastern routes, passed through Palestine (where Joseph was sold to the caravan of Midianitish merchants) into Egypt, terminating at Memphis on the Nile. The eastern route diverged from it to Petra,[1] a place perhaps more celebrated than any other in the inland trade of ancient times. From Petra, there were two great routes to the East, both terminating in Gerrha on the Persian Gulf. Opposite to this place, and about fifty miles distant, lay the island of Tylos,[2] a settlement of the Phœnicians, as already stated. One of the routes lay along the line of the eastern shore of the Arabian Gulf, but at some distance from it, except where it touched Leuke Kome, and, most probably, Mecca also, till it reached Saba or Saphar, perhaps, as already suggested, the Ophir of Solomon, a distance of twelve hundred and sixty geographical miles from Petra, or a caravan journey of seventy days; thence the route lay through a great desert to Gerrha. The other route was almost a straight line through a more northern desert, from Gerrha to Petra, and was probably that by which Europe was first supplied with the produce of India.
Importance of Petra. While Gerrha was the chief commercial city of Arabia to the east, Petra,[3] the capital of the Nabathæans, may be considered as occupying a similar position in the north-west of that country. A city equal in opulence to Gerrha, it constituted the chief western mart of the Arabian spices and frankincense, of which immense quantities were consumed in Egypt. Here important fairs were periodically held for the
