midday
However this may be , the old inhabitants had worked on it , the marks of their tools may still be seen upon the rock . For the first mile or two the road is broad and the ascent so gentle that my horse was able to gallop up it on that dreadful night when , after seeing my son 's face , accident , or rather Providence , enabled me to escape the Fung . But from the spot where the lions pulled the poor beast down , its character changes . In places it is so narrow that travellers must advance in single file between walls of rock hundreds of feet high , where the sky above looks like a blue ribbon , and even at midday the path below is plunged in gloom . At other spots the slope is so precipitous that beasts of burden can scarcely keep their foothold ; indeed , we were soon obliged to transfer ourselves from the camels to horses accustomed to the rocks . At others , again , it follows the brink of a yawning precipice , an ugly place to ride or turn rectangular corners , which half-a-dozen men could hold against an army , and twice it passes through tunnels , though whether these are natural I do not know . Besides all these obstacles to an invader there were strong gates at intervals , with towers near by where guards were stationed night and day , and fosses or dry moats in front of them which could only be crossed by means of drawbridges .