Travels in the Upper Egyptian Deserts 1000079889

8/13/2019 Travels in the Upper Egyptian Deserts 1000079889

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Travels in theUpper Egyptian Deserts

BY

ARTHUR E. P. WEIGALLINSPECTOR-GENERAL OF UPPER EGYPT, DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES

AUTHOR OF {A REPORT ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF LOWER NUBIA,' *A CATALOGUE OFTHE WEIGHTS AND BALANCES IN THE CAIRO MUSEUM,' 'a GUIDE TO

THE ANTIQUITIES OF UPPER EGYPT,' ' DIE MASTABA DESGEMNIKAl' (WITH PROFESSOR VON BISSING), ETC.

SECOND IMPRESSION

William Blackwood and SonsEdinburgh and London

1913

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


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arts

5


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TO

SIR GASTON MASPERO, K.C.M.G.,

ETC., ETC., ETC.,

DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF

ANTIQUITIES, EGYPT,

THIS BOOK IS

RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.


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PREFACE.

Some of the chapters in this book have appearedas articles in ' Blackwood's Magazine.' The vari-us

journeys here recorded have been made inthe ordinary course of the work of inspection,and have been reported in the usual officialmanner. These less technical descriptions havebeen written in leisure hours, and the illustrationshere published are selected from a large numberof photographs and drawings rapidly made by thewayside. The journey to Wady Hammamat andKossair was made in the company of three

painters, Mr Charles Whymper, Mr Walter

Tyndale, and Mr Erskine Nicol, to whom mythanks are due, as also they are to Mr JohnWells, with whom I travelled to Gebel Dukhan.I am indebted to Prof. Sayce and Mr Seymourde Ricci for several notes on the Greek inscrip-


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viii Preface.

tions at Wady Abad. On some of the journeysI was accompanied by Mahmoud Effendi Rushdyand Mahmoud Effendi Muhammed, Inspectors ofthe Department of Antiquities, whose assistance

was valuable.

ARTHUR E. P. WEIGALL.

Luxor,Upper Egypt.


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CONTENTS.

I. THE EASTERN DESERT AND ITS INTERESTS.

1

II. TO THE QUARRIES OF WADY HAMMAMAT. .

28

III. THE RED SEA HIGHROAD 56

IV. THE IMPERIAL PORPHYRY QUARRIES...

90

V. THE QUARRIES OF MONS CLAUDIANUS.

.115

VI. THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD. . .

.141

VII. A NUBIAN HIGHWAY 169


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ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATEPAOB

the head of wady gatar. .

FrontispieceI. IN THE DESERT. THE AUTHOR IS SEEN ON THE NEAR

CAMEL.......

10

ON THE EDGE OF THE EASTERN DESERT.

10

II. DESERT VEGETATION. THE COLOQUINTIDA PLANT . 16

A NEAR VIEW OF THE COLOQUINTIDA PLANT. PHOTO-RAPHED

IN THE WADY ABAD. .

.16

III. ONE OF THE RIDING CAMELS....

20

ONE OF THE CAMELS.....

20

IV. MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS ON ROCKS. .

30

V. UNDER THE TAMARISKS OF THE OASIS OF LAGETA . 36

BIR HAMMAMAT, LOOKING SOUTH. . .

.36

VI. CARTOUCHES OF SETY II. ON THE ROCKS BETWEEN BIR

HAMMAMAT AND WADY FOWAKHIEH.

40

INSCRIPTIONS ON THE ROCKS BETWEEN BIR HAMMAMAT

AND WADY FOWAKHIEH. . .

.40

VII. INSCRIPTIONS AND MARKS.....

46

VIII. THE CAMP IN WADY FOWAKHIEH, LOOKING DOWN FROM

THE HILLS ON THE NORTH SIDE. THE CAMEL

TRACKS ARE SEEN PASSING ALONG THE VALLEY.

50

WADY FOWAKHIEH, LOOKING EAST. THE CAMEL TRACKS

WILL BE NOTICED AGAIN. . .

.50

IX. ABANDONED SARCOPHAGUS ON THE HILLSIDE IN WADY

FOWAKHIEH......

54

A TYPICAL VALLEY NEAR WADY FOWAKHIEH. .

54

X. ROCK INSCRIPTIONS AT WADY FOWAKHIEH AND KOSSAIR 60


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xii Illustrations.

66

74

XL BIR ES SID, THE WELL AT THE HIGHEST POINT OF THERED SEA HIGHROAD ..... 66

THE ROMAN FORTRESS OF ABU ZERAH, LOOKING SOUTH-AST.......

XII. DESERT PANORAMA FROM A HILL - TOP TWO HOURS'RIDE EAST OF BIR ES SID, LOOKING EAST. THEROAD IS SEEN PASSING TO NORTH AND SOUTH OF

THIS HILL AND JOINING UP FURTHER TO THE

EAST .......

XIII. KOSSAIR. ARABIAN BOATS ON THE BEACH 80A STREET IN KOSSAIR 80

XIV. THE INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE AT KOSSAIR . 86THE MAIN ENTRANCE OF THE FORTRESS AT KOSSAIR . 86

XV. THE START FROM KENEH. NATIVE POLICE LOADING THECAMELS ...... 90

MIDDAT REST AT EL GHAITEH. CAMELS FEEDING FROM

THE BUSHES ......

XVI. THE ROMAN STATION AT EL GHAITEH, LOOKING DOWNFROM THE OFFICERS' QUARTERS ON THE HILL. ADRY RIVER-BED BORDERED BY BUSHES RUNS ACROSS

THE PLAIN ......

A TANK FOR STORING WATER INSIDE THE STATION OF

EL GHAITEH ...... 96XVII. THE EXCAVATION INSIDE THE ENCLOSURE OF EL SAR-

GIEH ....... 104THE ROMAN STATION AT EL GREIYEH. THE ANIMAL

LINES. THE BRICK PILLARS SUPPORTED THE ROOF

UNDER WHICH WERE THE NIGHT-STALLS . . 104XVIII. GRANITE HILLS TO THE SOUTH OF WADY BILEH. THE

GEBEL DUKHAN RANGE IS TO THE NORTH OF THIS

WADY .......

RUINS OF THE ROMAN TEMPLE AT GEBEL DUKHAN,SHOWING THE HILLSIDE FROM WHICH THE POR-HYRY

WAS TAKEN .

90

96

108

108


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Illustrations. xiii

XIX. THE RUINS OF THE TOWN OP GEBEL DUKHAN. THE

UPRIGHT PILLARS OF GRANITE SUPPORTED A ROOF 114

THE ROMAN TOWN OF MONS CLAUDIANUS, LOOKINGSOUTH FROM THE CAUSEWAY LEADING TO THE

MAIN QUARRY. THE ROUND PILES OF STONE IN

THE FOREGROUND ARE BUILT AT INTERVALS ALONG

THE CAUSEWAY . . . . .114XX. MONS CLAUDIANUS. THE TOWN . . . .120

MONS CLAUDIANUS. CHAMBERS ON THE WEST SIDE OF

THE FORECOURT OF THE TEMPLE. THE THRESHOLD

AND BASE OF A COLUMN OF THE GRANITE PORTICO

ARE SEEN ON THE RIGHT . . . .120XXL MONS CLAUDIANUS. EAST END OF THE TEMPLE . 124

MONS CLAUDIANUS, LOOKING OVER THE TOWN TO THETEMPLE ON THE HILLSIDE .... 124

XXII. MONS CLAUDIANUS. DOORWAY LEADING FROM THE HALL

OF THE BATH-HOUSE INTO THE ROOM IN WHICH

WAS THE PLUNGE-BATH. ORIGINALLY THE WALLS

WERE PLASTERED . . . . .128MONS CLAUDIANUS. PEDESTAL OF THE ALTAR IN THE

FORECOURT OF THE TEMPLE. THE ALTAR ITSELF IS

SEEN BROKEN IN THE FOREGROUND . .128XXIII. MONS CLAUDIANUS. THE FIRST HEATED ROOM OF THE

BATH-HOUSE. THE DOORWAY ON THE LEFT LEADS

INTO THE WARMER ROOM. THE PERPENDICULAR

CUT IN THE LEFT WALL NEAR THE CORNER IS ONE

OF THE RECESSES IN WHICH THE HOT-AIR PIPES

WERE FIXED ...... 132

MONS CLAUDIANUS. THE SAME DOORWAY NEARER VIEW 132

XXIV. MONS CLAUDIANUS. A LARGE GRANITE COLUMN LYING

TO THE NORTH-EAST OF THE TOWN. THE BACK

WALL OF TEE TOWN IS SEEN BEHIND THE COLUMN,ABOVE WHICH THE TEMPLE BUILDINGS ARE SEEN

AT THE FOOT OF THE GRANITE HILLS . 138


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xiv Illustrations.

XXIV. MONS CLAUDIANUS. LARGE GRANITE COLUMNS LYING

AT THE FOOT OF A QUARRY WEST OF THE TOWN.

138

XXV. THE ROMAN STATION OF ABU GEHAD. SOME OF THE

ROOMS AS SEEN FROM THE COURT, LOOKING WEST 142FRONT VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD

..142

XXVI. THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD. THE EAST END OFTHE PORTICO. THE SQUARE PILLAR WAS BUILT

IN GRjECO-ROMAN TIMES TO SUPPORT THE BROKEN

ARCHITRAVE ...... 146

THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD. THE EAST WALL OF THE

PORTICO. THE KING IS SEEN SMITING A GROUP

OF NEGROES ...... 146XXVII. THE MAIN ENTRANCE OF THE ROMAN STATION OF

WADY ABAD, LOOKING WEST FROM INSIDE THEENCLOSURE

. . . . ..150

THE PILES OF STONE ERECTED OPPOSITE THE TEMPLE

OF WADY ABAD ..... 150XXVIII. INSCRIPTIONS AND DRAWINGS IN AND NEAR THE

TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD. . .

.154XXIX. ARCHAIC DRAWINGS OF SACRED BOATS ON ROCKS

NEAR TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD. .

.156

XXX. ARCHAIC DRAWINGS OF SACRED BOATS, ANIMALS, ETC.,ON ROCKS NEAR TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD . . 162

XXXI. GREEK INSCRIPTION RELATING TO AN ELEPHANT HUNT.

ON A ROCK TO THE EAST OF THE TEMPLE OF WADY

abAd.......

166

SKETCH-PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD . 166XXXII. THE INSCRIBED ROCK, FROM THE NORTH-WEST . 174

THE INSCRIBED ROCK, FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. . 174XXXIII. THE ELEPHANTINE ROAD, LOOKING ALONG IT TOWARDS

ASWAN......

184

VIEW OF THE ISLANDS IN THE RIVER, ETC., FROMNEAR THE INSCRIBED ROCK AT THE HEAD OF THE

ELEPHANTINE ROAD . . . . ,184


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2 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.

straight into the boisterous breezes of Egypt, onemight hold them so entranced in the sunlightwhich streams over the desert, that they wouldfeel,wherever they might be seated, the tinglingglow of the sun and the wind upon their cheeks,and would hold their hands to their eyes as ashelter from the glare. The walls of their roomswould fall flat as those of Jericho ; and outsidethey would see the advancing host of the invaders the sunshine, the north wind, the scuddingclouds, the circlingeagles, the glistening sand,the blue shadows, and the rampant rocks. Andthe night closingover the sack of their city,theywould see the moonlight, the brilliant stars, theflutteringbats, the solemn owls ; and they wouldhear the wailing of the hyaenas and the barkingof the dogs in the distant camps. If one onlypossessed the ability,one might weave such amagic carpet for those who knew how to rideupon it,that, deserting the fallen Jericho of theirhabitation, they would fly to the land of the in-aders

which they had seen, and there they wouldbe kept as spell-bound and dazzled by the eyesof the wilderness as ever a child was dazzled by atale of the sea.

But with this abilitylacking it is very doubtfulwhether the reader will be able to appreciatethe


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The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 3

writers meaning ; and, without the carpet, it isa far cry from Upper Egypt, where these wordsare written, to the fireside where they are read.Nevertheless I will venture to give an accounthere of some journeys made in the Upper Egyptiandesert, in the hope rather of arousing interest in afascinatingcountry than of placing on record muchinformation of value to science ; although thereader interested in Egyptian archaeologywill findsome new material upon which to speculate.

The Upper Egyptian desert is a country knownonly to a very few. The resident, as well as thevisitor, in Egypt raises his eyes from the fertilevalley of the Nile to the bare hills, and lowersthem once more with the feeling that he haslooked at the wall of the garden, the boundaryof the land. There is, however, very much tobe seen and studied behind this wall ; and thosewho penetrate into the solitudes beyond willassuredly find themselves in a world of newcolours, new forms, and new interests. In theold days precious metal was sought here, orna-ental

stone was quarried, trade - routes passedthrough to the Red Sea, and the soldiery ofEgypt, and later of Rome, marched from stationto station amidst its hills. The desert as onesees it now is, so to speak, peopled with the


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ghosts of the Old World ; and on hidden hill-slopes or in obscure valleys one meets with theremains of ancient settlements scattered throughthe length and breadth of the country.

The number of persons who have had the energyto climb the garden wall and to wander into thisgreat wilderness is so small that one might countthe names upon the fingers. Lepsius, the GermanEgyptologist, passed over some of the routeson which antiquities were to be met with ;GoleniscbefF, the Russian Egyptologist, checkedsome of his results ; Schweinfurth, the Germanexplorer, penetrated to many of the unknownlocalities,and mapped a great part of the country;Bellefonds Bey, the Director -General of PublicWorks in Egypt under Muhammed Aly, made asurvey of the mineral belt lying between the riverand the Red Sea ; and during the last score ofyears various prospectors and miners have visitedcertain points of interest to them. The Govern-ent

Survey Department is now engaged inmapping this Eastern Desert, and two mostvaluable reports have already been published ;while for a few years there existed a MinesDepartment, whose director, Mr John Wells,made himself acquainted with many of the routesand most of the mining centres. Thus, most of


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the journeys here to be recorded have not beenmade over absolutely new ground ; though, exceptfor the expert reports of the Survey Departmentand some papers by Schweinfurth, it would bea difficult matter to unearth any literature onthe subject. In describing these journeys, how-ver,

one is often enabled to indulge in the notunpleasing recollection that one is writing ofplaces which no other European eyes have seen.

Those who have travelled in Egypt will notneed to be told how the Nile, flowing down fromthe Sudan to the distant sea, pushes its silveryway through the wide desert : now passingbetween the granite hills, now through regionsof sandstone, and now under the limestone cliffs.A strip of verdant cultivated land, seldom morethan six or eight miles wide, and often only asmany yards, borders the broad river; and beyondthis, on either side, is the desert. In UpperEgypt one may seldom take an afternoon's ridedue east or due west without passing out eitheron to the sun-baked sand of a limitless wildernessor into the liquid shadows of the towering hills.For the present we are not concerned with thewestern desert, which actually forms part of thegreat Sahara, and one's back may therefore beturned upon it.


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Eastwards, behind the hills or over the sand,there is in most parts of the country a wideundulating plain,broken here and there by thelimestone outcrops. Here the sun beats downfrom a vast sky, and the traveller feels himselfbut a fly crawling upon a brazen table. In alldirections the desert stretches, until, in a leadenhaze, the hot sand meets the hot sky. Thehillocks and points of rock rise like islands fromthe floods of the mirage in which they are re-lected

; and sometimes there are clumps ofwithered bushes to tell of the unreality of thewaters.

The scenery here is often of exquisitebeauty ;and its very monotony lends to it an interestwhen for a while the grouping of the hills ceasesto offer new pictures and new harmonies to theeye. Setting out on a journey towards the RedSea one rides on camel-back over this rollingplain,with the sun bombarding one's helmet from aboveand the wind charging it from the flank ; and, asnoonday approaches, one often looks in vain for arock under which to find shade. Naturally theglaring sand is far hotter than the shady earthunder the palms in the cultivation ; but thestagnant, dusty, fly-filledir of the groves is notto be compared with the clear atmosphere up in


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the wilderness. There are no evil odours here,breeding sickness and beckoning death. The windblows so purely that one might think it had nottouched earth since the gods released it from thegolden caverns. The wide ocean itself has not lessto appeal to the sense of smell than has the fairdesert.

Descending from the camel for lunch, one lies onone's back upon the sand and stares up at the deepblue of the sky and the intense whiteness of apassing cloud. Raising oneself, the Nile valleymay still be seen, perhaps, with its palms floatingabove the vaporous mirage ; and away in thedistance the pale cliffs rise. Then across one'srange of sight a butterflyzigzags,blazing in thesunlight; and behind it the blue becomes darkerand the white more extreme. Around one, on theface of the desert, there is a jumbled collection ofthings beautiful : brown flints,white pebbles oflimestone, yellow fragments of sandstone, orange-coloured ochre, transparent pieces of gypsum,carnelian and alabaster chips, glitteringquartz.Across the clear patches of sand there are allmanner of recent footprints,and the incidentalstudy of these is one of the richest delights ofa desert journey. Here one may see the four-pronged footprintsof a wagtail, and there the


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arger marks of a crow. An eagle'sand a vulture'sfootmarks are often to be observed, and the identi-ication

of those of birds such as the desertpartridge or of the cream-coloured courser is ahappy exercise for one's ingenuity. Here thelight,wiggly line of a lizard's rapid tour abroadattracts the attention, reminding one of someAmerican globe-trotter'soute over Europe ; andthere footprintsof the jerboa are seen leading inshort jumps towards its hole. Jackals or foxesleave their dainty pad-marks in all directions,and one may sometimes come across the heavyprintsof a hysena, while it is not unusual to meetwith those of a gazelle.

In the afternoon one rides onwards, and perhapsa hazy view of the granite hills may now beobtained in the far distance ahead. The sunsoon loses its strength, and shines in slanting-lines over the desert, so that one sees oneselfin shadow stretched out to amazing lengths, asthough the magnetic power of night in the eastwere already dragging in the reluctant darknessesto its dark self. Each human or camel footprintin the sand is at this hour a basin filled with blueshade, while every larger dent in the desert'ssurface is brimful of that same blue ; and thecolour is so opaque that an Arab lying therein


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clad in his blue shirt is almost indistinguishableat a distance. Above one the white clouds gotearing by, too busy, too intent, it would seem,on some far-off goal to hover blushing around thesun. The light fades, and the camp is pitchedon the open plain; and now one is glad to wraponeself in a large overcoat, and to swallow the hottea which has been prepared over a fire of thedried scrub of the desert.

The nights in the desert are as beautiful as thedays, though in winter they are often bitterlycold.With the assistance of a warm bed and plenty ofblankets, however, one may sleep in the open incomfort ; and only those who have known thisvast bedroom will understand how beautiful nightmay be. If one turns to the east, one may stareat Mars flashingred somewhere over Arabia, andwestwards there is Jupiter blazing above theSahara. One looks up and up at the expanseof star-strewn blue, and one's mind journeys ofitself into the place of dreams before sleep hascome to conduct it thither. The dark desertdrops beneath one; the bed floats in mid -air,with planets above and below. Could one butpeer over the side, earth would be seen as smalland vivid as the moon. But a trance holds thebody inactive, and the eyes are fixed upon the


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io Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.

space above. Then, quietly,a puff of wind bringsone down again to realities as it passes from dark-ess

to darkness. Consciousness returns quicklyand gently, points out the aspect of the night,indicates the larger celestial bodies, and as quicklyand gently leaves one again to the tender whispersof sleep.

When there is moonlight there is more to carrythe eye into the region of dreams on earth thanthere is in the heavens ; for the desert spreads outaround one in a silver, shimmering haze, and nolimit can be placed to its horizons. The eye can-ot

tell where the sand meets the sky, nor can themind know whether there is any meeting. In thedimness of coming sleep one wonders whether thehands of the sky are always just out of reach ofthose of the desert, whether there is always an-ther

mile to journey and always another hill toclimb ; and, wondering, one drifts into uncon-ciousness.

At dawn the lightbrings one back toearth in time to see the sun pass up from behindthe low hills. In contrast to the vague night theproceeding is rapid and business-like. The lightprecedes its monarch only by half an hour or so ;and ere the soft colours have been fullyappreciated,the sun appears over the rocks and flings a sharp


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In the Desert. The Author is seen on the near camel.

On the edg-eoi' the Eastern Desert.-- Page 30.Pl. 1.


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may drink, and from which the portabletanks maybe refilled.

Near these wells there are sometimes a fewBedwin to be found tending their little herds ofgoats : quiet, harmless sons of the desert, whogenerallyown allegianceto some Shekh livinginthe Nile valley. One's guides and camel-menexchange greetingswith them, and pass the latestnews over the camp fires. Often, however, onemay journey for many days without meeting eithera human being or a four-footed animal, though onthe well-marked tracks the prints of goats andgoatherds,camels and camel-men, are apparent.

No matter in what direction one travels,hardlya day passes on which one does not meet withsome trace of ancient activity. Here it will be adeserted gold-mine,there a quarry ; here a ruinedfortress or town, and there an inscriptionpon therocks. Indications of the present day are often solacking, and Time seems to be so much at a stand-still,that one slipsback in imagination to the dimelder days. The years fall from one like a garmentdoffed, and one experiences a sense of relief fromtheir weight. A kind of exhilaration, moreover,goes with the thought of the life of the men ofthousands of years ago who lived amongst thesechangeless hills and valleys. Their days were so


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full of adventure : they were beset with dangers.One has but to look at the fortified camps, thewatch-towers on the heights,the beacons along thehighroads, to realise how brave were the oldentimes. One of the peculiarcharms of these hillsof the Eastern Desert is their impregnation withthe atmosphere of a shadowy adventurous past.One's mind is conscious, if it may be so expressed,of the ghosts of old sights,the echoes of oldsounds. Dead ambitions, dead terrors, driftthrough these valleys on the wind, or lurk behindthe tumbled rocks. Rough inscriptionsn theserocks tell how this captain or that centurion hererested, and on the very spot the modern travellerrests to ease the self-same aches and to enjoy theself-same shade before moving on towards anidentical goal in the east.

On the third or fourth day after leaving theNile one passes beneath the mountains, which hererise sometimes to as much as 6000 feet ; and be-ond

these the road slopes through the valleysdown to the barren Red Sea coast, which may beany distance from 100 to 400 miles from the Nile.Kossair is the one town on the coast oppositeUpper Egypt, as it was also in ancient times ; andBerenice, opposite Lower Nubia, was the only othertown north of Sudan territory. Kossair does a


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fast-diminishingtrade with Arabia, and a handfulof Egyptian coastguards is kept mildly busy in theprevention of smuggling. The few inhabitants ofthe Egyptian coast fish, sleep,say their prayers,or dream in the shade of their hovels until deathat an extremely advanced age releases them fromthe boredom of existence. Those of them who areof Arab stock sometimes enliven their days byshooting one another in a more or less sportingmanner, and by wandering to other and more re-ote

settlements thereafter ; but those of Egyptianblood have not the energy even for this amount ofexertion. There is a lethargy over the desertwhich contrasts strangely with one's own desirefor activityunder the influence of the sun and thewind, and of the records of ancient toil which areto be observed on all sides. It must be that we ofthe present day come as the sons of a race still inits youth ; and in this silent land we meet onlywith the worn-out remnant of a people who havebeen old these thousands of years.

There was a threefold reason for the activities ofthe ancients in the Eastern Desert. Firstly,fromKoptos, a city on the Nile not far from Thebes, toKossair there ran the great trade-route withArabia, Persia, and India ; from Suez to Koptosthere was a route by which the traders from Syria


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often travelled ; from Edfu to Berenice there wasa trade-route for the produce of Southern Arabiaand the ancient land of Pount ; while other roadsfrom point to point of the Nile were often used asshort-cuts. Secondly,in this desert there were verynumerous gold mines, the working of which wasone of the causes which made Egypt the richestcountry of the ancient world. And thirdly, theornamental stones which were to be quarried in thehills were in continuous requisitionor the buildingsand statuary of Egypt, Assyria,Persia, and Rome.

There is much to be said in regard to the gold-mining, but here space will not permit of morethan the most cursory review of the information.Gold was used in Egypt at a date considerablyprior to the beginning of written history inDynasty I., and there are many archaic objectsrichly decorated with that metal. The situationof many of the earlycities of the Nile valleyis duesolelyto this industry. When two cities of highantiquity are in close proximity to one another onoppositebanks of the river, as is often the case inUpper Egypt, one generallyfinds that the city onthe western bank is the older of the two. In thecase of DiospolisParva and Khenoboskion, whichstand oppositeto one another, the former, on thewest bank, is the more ancient and is the capital


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Desert vegetation. The Coloquintida plant.

A near view of the Coloquintida plant. Photographed in the Wady Abad.

Pl. ii.


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Throughout what is known as the old kingdom,gold was used in ever- increasingquantities,ut anidea of the wealth of the mines will best be ob-ained

from the records of the Empire. About250,000 grains of gold were drawn by the YizirRekhmara in taxes from Upper Egypt, and thiswas but a small item in comparison with the taxeslevied in kind. A king of a north Syrian statewrote to Amonhotep III.,the Pharaoh of Egypt,asking for gold,and towards the end of his letterhe says : Let my brother send gold in very largequantities,ithout measure, and let him send moregold to me than he did to my father ; for in mybrother's land gold is as common as dust. To thegod Amon alone Rameses III. presented some26,000 grains of gold,and to the other gods hegave at the same time very largesums. In latertimes the High Priest of Amon was made alsodirector of the gold mines, and it was the divertingof this vast wealth from the crown to the churchwhich was mainly responsiblefor the fall of theRamesside line.

A subject must here be introduced which willever remain of interest to the speculative. Somehave thought that the southern portion of thisdesert is to be identified with the Ophir of theBible, and that the old gold-workings here are

B


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1 8 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.

none other than King Solomon's Mines. In theBook of Kings one reads, And King Solomonmade a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which isbeside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in theland of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy hisservants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea,with the servants of Solomon. And they came toOphir, and fetched from thence gold,four hundredand twenty talents, and brought it to KingSolomon. Ophir cannot be identified with Arabia,since there is no gold there ; and hence one mayseek this land of ancient wealth at the southernend of the Eastern Egyptian Desert. If it isargued that the Hebrews would have founddifficulties in carrying on mining operationsunmolested in Egyptian territory,it may becontended on the other hand that King Solomonmay have made some bargain with the Pharaoh :for example, that the former might mine in acertain tract of desert if the latter might cuttimber in the Lebanon. The purchase of cedar-wood by the Egyptians is known to have takenplace at about this period,payment in gold beingmade ; and therefore it does not require an unduestretch of the imagination to suppose that theHebrews themselves mined the gold. Again, atthe time when King Solomon reigned in all his


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glory in Palestine, the short-lived Pharaohs ofEgypt sat upon tottering thrones, and were whollyunable to protect the Eastern Desert from in-asion.

The Egyptians often state that theyencountered hostile forces in this land, andthese may not always have consisted of Bedwinmarauders.

No savant has accepted for a moment the varioustheories which place Ophir at the southern end ofthe African continent ; and the most common viewis that Solomon obtained his gold from the land ofPount, so often referred to in Egyptian inscrip-ions.

This country is thought to have beensituated in the neighbourhood of Suakin ; but, asProfessor Naville points out, it is a somewhatvague geographical term, and may include a largetract of country to the north and south of thispoint. One cannot imagine the Hebrews pene-rating

very far over the unknown seas to theperilous harbours of Middle Africa : one picturesthem more easily huddled in the less dangerousports of places such as Kossair or Berenice, or atfarthest in that of Suakin. It is thus quiteprobable that some of the gold-workings in thedesert here described are actuallyKing Solomon'sMines, and that the country through which thereader will be conducted is the wonderful Ophir


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itself. Certainly there is no one who can stateconclusivelythat it is not.

Work continued with unabated energy duringthe later periods of Egyptian history, and thePersian, Greek, and Roman treasuries were filledconsecutively with the produce of the mines.Several classical writers make reference to theseoperations,and sometimes one is told the actualname and situation of the workings. Diodorusgives a description of the mines in the WadyAlagi, and tells how the work was done. Theminers wore a lamp tied to their forehead. Thestone was carried to the surface by children, andwas pounded in stone mortars by iron pestles. Itwas then ground to a fine powder by old men andwomen. This powdered ore was washed on in-linedtables, the residue being placed in earthencrucibles with lead, salt, and tin for fluxes, andwas there baked for five days. Agatharchidesdescribes how the prisoners and negroes hewedout the stone, and, with unutterable toil, crushedit in mills and washed out the grains of gold. TheArabic historian, El Macrizi, states that duringthe reign of Ahmed ben Teilun there was greatactivity in the mining industry throughout theEastern Desert, and Cufic inscriptionsf this datefound in the old workings confirm this statement.


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One of the riding camels.

One of the cai

Pl. hi.


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From then, until modern times, however, littlework was done ; but in recent years, as the readerwill no doubt know, many of the ancient workingshave been reopened, and one must admit that ifthese are reallyto be regarded as King Solomon'sMines, that potentate must have had a somewhatlower opinion of Ophir than tradition indicates.

The other cause for the ancient activityin theEastern Desert was, as has been said, the need ofornamental stone for the making of vases, statues,and architectural accessories. From the earliesttimes bowls and vases of alabaster, breccia, diorrte,and other fine stones were used by the Egyptians,and the quarriesmust have already formed quite aflourishingindustry. Soon the making of statu-ttes,

and later of statues, enlarged this industry,and with the growth of civilisation it steadilyin-reasedThe galleriesof the Cairo Museum, and

those of European museums, are massed withstatues and other objects cut in stone broughtfrom the hills between the Nile and the RedSea. The breccia quarries of Wady Hammamatwere worked from archaic to Roman days ; theTourquoise Mountains, not far from Kossair, sup-lied

the markets of the ancient world ; whitegranite was taken from the hills of Um Etgal ;there were two or three alabaster quarriesin con-


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carried on ten large carts, each drawn by six yokeof oxen, while porters innumerable are said tohave been employed. The families of the work-en

generally lived on the spot, and these alsohad to be fed a fact which is indicated, too, byan inscriptionwhich states that in one expeditioneach miner required twenty loaves of bread perdiem.

Whenever this organisation broke down theconsequences must have been awful. In thisquarrying expedition in Ramesside times, con-isting

of 9000 men, 10 per cent of them diedfrom one cause or another ; and later writersspeak of the horrors of the mines. In summerthe heat is intense in the desert, and the wellscould not always have supplied sufficient water.The rocks are then so hot that they cannot betouched by the bare hand, and one's boots arelittle protectionto the feet. Standing in the sun-ight,

the ring has to be removed from one's finger,for the hot metal burns a blister upon the flesh.After a few hours of exercise there is a whitelather upon the lips,and the eyes are blindedwith the moisture which has collected aroundthem ; and thus what the quarrymen and minersmust have suffered as they worked upon thescorching stones no tongue can tell.


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In ancient Egyptian times the camel was re-ardedas a curious beast from a far country, and

was seldom, if ever, put to any use in Egypt.Only three or four representationsof it are nowknown, and it never occurs amongst any of theanimals depicted upon the walls of the tombs,although bears, elephants, giraffes,and otherforeign and rare creatures, are there shown. Itwas an Asiatic animal, and was not introducedinto Egypt as an agent of transportation untilthe days of the ubiquitous Romans. Donkeys,oxen, and human beings were alone used inPharaonic days for transporting the necessitiesof the labourers and the produce of their work ;and probably the officials were carried to and froin sedan-chairs. Even in Roman days there isnothing to show that the camel was very largelyemployed, and one may not amuse oneself tooconfidently with the picture of a centurion ofthe Empire astride the hump of the rollingshipof the desert.

Nowadays, of course, one travels entirely bycamel in the desert. For an expedition of fifteendays or so one generally requires about a dozencamels all told, and one or two guides. Some ofthe animals carry the water in portable tanks ;others are loaded with the tents and beds ; and


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the camels drink every second day, but they arequite capable of going strongly for three or fourdays without water, and, when really necessary,can travel for a week or more through a landwithout wells.

While the Mines Department was in existenceexperiments were tried with automobiles andmotor bicycles,which were by no means unsuc-essful.

Many of the main roads in the EasternDesert pass over hard gravel, and a motor maybe driven with safety over the unprepared cameltracks. If wells were sunk every ten or fifteenmiles, there would be no dangers to be feared froma breakdown ; and under favourable circumstancesthe journey from the Nile to the Red Sea mightbe accomplished in a morning. In the futureone may picture the energetic tourist leavinghis Luxor or Cairo hotel, whirling over the openplainswhere now one crawls, rushing through thevalleys in which the camel-rider lingers,penetrat-ng

to the remote ruins and deserted workings,and emerging breathless on to the golden coast ofthe sea, to wave his handkerchief to his friendsupon the decks of the Indian liners.

The time must surely come when the ownersof automobiles in Egypt will sicken of the shortroads around Cairo, and will venture beyond the


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garden wall towards the rising sun. Whether itwill be that the re-working of the gold mines andthe quarries of ornamental stone will attract theattention of these persons to this wonderful wilder-ess,

or that the enterprising automobilists willpave the way for the miners and the quarrymen,it is certain that some day the desert will blossomwith the rose once more, and the rocks reverberatewith the sound of many voices. Had I now in mytwo open hands pearls, diamonds, and rubies, howgladly would I give them or some of them forthe sight of the misty mountains of the EasternDesert, and for the feel of the sharp air of thehills One looks forward with enthusiasm to thenext visit to these unknown regions, and one can-ot

but feel that those who have it in their powerto travel there are missing much in remainingwithin the walls of the little garden of the Nile.One hears in imagination the camels grunting astheir saddles are adjusted ; one feels the tingle ofthe morning air ; and one itches to be off again,over the hills and far away, into the solitarysplendour of the desert.


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II.

TO THE QUARRIES OF WADY HAMMAMAT.

The so-called Breccia Quarries of Wady Hamma-mat are known to all Egyptologists by name,owing to the important historical inscriptionswhich are cut on the rocks of the valley. In

reality the stone quarried there was mainly tuff,or consolidated volcanic ash ; and the real name ofthe locality is Wady Fowakhieh, the Valley of thePots ; but such niceties do not trouble the aver-ge

archaeologist. Many of the inscriptions werecopied by Lepsius, the late German Egyptologist,and further notes were made by Golenischeff, aRussian savant ; but except for these two personsno Egyptologist has studied the quarries. Theyhave been seen, however, on a few occasions byEuropeans ; and, as the caravan road to Kossairpasses along the valley in which they are situated,they are known to all the natives who havecrossed the desert at this point. In November1907 I found it possible to visit this historic


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To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 29

site, and I was fortunate enough to obtain thecompanionship of three English friends who hap-ened,

very opportunely, to be in search of mildexcitement at the time.

We set out from Luxor one morning in Nov-mber,our caravan consisting in all of twenty-

three camels, nine of which were ridden by ourfour selves, my servant, two guards, the Shekh ofthe camelmen, and the guide, while fourteen wereloaded with the three tents, the baggage, and thewater-tanks, and were tended by a dozen camel-men who made the journey mainly on foot. Ourroad led eastwards from Luxor past the temple ofthe goddess Mut at Karnak, reflected in its sacredlake, and so along the highroad towards the risingsun.

The day was cool,and a strong invigoratingbreeze raced past us, going in the same direction.Before us, as we crossed the fields, the sunlitdesert lay stretched behind the soft green of thetamarisks which border its edge. Away to theright the three peaks of the limestone hills,whichform the characteristic background of Thebes, roseinto the sunlight; and to the left one could discernthe distant ranges behind which we were topenetrate.

On reaching the desert we turned off north-ardstowards these hills,skirtingthe edge of the


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cultivated land until we should pick up the ancientroad which leaves the Nile valley some twentymiles north of Luxor. After luncheon and a restin the shade of the rustlingtamarisks the ride wascontinued, and we did not again dismount until,inthe mid-afternoon, the Coptic monastery which issituated behind the town of Qus, and which marksthe beginning of the road to the Red Sea, wasreached ; and here the camp was pitched. Thequiet five-hours' ride of about twenty miles hadsufficed to produce healthy appetitesin the party,and, when the sun went down and the air turnedcold, we were glad to attack an early dinner inthe warmth of the mess-tent one of the camel-boxes serving as a table, and the four saddlestaking the place of chairs.The next morning we set out soon after sunrise,and rode eastwards into the desert, which herestretched out before us in a blaze of sunlight. Theroad passed over the open gravel and sand in aseries of paralleltracks beaten hard by the pads ofgenerationsof camels. Gebel el Gorn, the Hillof the Horn, was passed before noon ; and, mount-ng

a ridge, we saw the wide plain across whichwe were to travel, intersected by a dry river-bedmarked for its whole length by low bushes. Un-ble

to find shade, and these bushes being still


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1-3. Marks on a rock near Quft.4-6. On a rock near Qus. Old kingdom drawings

7. On a stone at Lageta. Page 32.8, 9. Inside Kasr el Benat. Page 33.

10-12. On rocks opposite Kasr el Benat. Page 34.13, 14. Sinaitic inscription opposite Kasr el Benat Page 34.-15-20. Opposite Kasr el Benat. Page 34.21-24. Marks on rocks of Abu Kueh. Page 34.25-32. Middle kingdom inscriptions, and marks at Abu Kueh.-

Page 34.

PL. IV.


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some distance ahead, we lunched in the open sun-ightat a spot where the wind, sweeping over the

ridge,brought us all the coolness which we coulddesire.

We were now on the great mediaeval highwayfrom Qus to Kossair, by which the Arabian andIndian trade with Egypt was once conducted.The quarries of Hammamat lie on the main road tothe sea. Nowadays the road starts from Keneh ;in ancient times it started from Koptos, now calledQuft, about ten miles south of Keneh ; and inmediaeval days it started from Qus, about tenmiles south of Quft again. The roads from thesedifferent places join at the little oasis of Lageta,which lies some four-and-twenty miles back fromthe Nile valley.Riding into Lageta in mid-afternoon the scenewas one of great charm. The flat desert stretchedaround us in a haze of heat. In the far distanceahead the mountains of Hammamat could be seen,blue, misty, and indistinct. The little oasis,withits isolated groups of tamarisks, its four or five tallpalms, its few acacias, and its one little crop ofcorn, formed a welcome patch of green amidst thebarren wilderness ; and the eyes, aching from theglare around, turned with gratitude towards thesoft shadows of the trees. A large,and probably


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ancient, well of brackish water forms the nucleusaround which the few poor huts cluster ; and twoor three shadufs, or water-hoists, are to be seenhere and there. A ruined, many-domed buildingwhich may have been a caravanserai, or perhaps aCoptic monastery, stands picturesquely under aspreading acacia ; and near it we found the frag-ent

of a Greek inscriptionin which, like a lightemerging momentarily from the darkness of thepast, the name of the Emperor Tiberius Claudiuswas to be seen. The few villagersidlywatched usas we dismounted and walked through the settle-ent,

too bathed in the languor of their monoton-uslife to bother to do more than greet with mild

interest those of our camelmen whom they knew ;and while

we sat under the tamarisks to drink ourtea, the only livingthing which took any stock ofus and our doings was a small green willow-wrenin search of a crumb of food.

The camp was pitched to the east of the oasis,and at dawn we continued our way. The tem-erature

was not more than 38 Fahrenheit whenthe sun rose, and we were constrained to breakinto a hard trot in order to keep warm. Twodesert martins circled about us as we went, nowpassing under the camels' necks, and now whirlingoverhead ; while more than once we put up a few


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cream-coloured coursers, who went off with a whirrinto the space around. After a couple of hours'riding over the open, hard-surfaced desert, wetopped a low ridge and came into view of a ruinedRoman station, called in ancient times the Hy-dreuma, and now known as Kasr el Benat, theCastle of the Maidens. The buildingstands in alevel plain around which the low hills rise,and tothe east the distant Hammamat mountains form adark background. From the outside one sees awell-made rectangularwall, and enteringthe door-ay

on the north side one passes into an enclosuresurrounded by a series of small chambers, theroofs of which have now fallen in. In these littlerooms the weary Roman officers and the caravanmasters rested themselves as they passed to andfro between the quarries and the Nile ; and in thiscourtyard,when haply the nights were warm, theysang their songs to the stars and dreamed theirdreams of Rome. The buildingis so little ruinedthat one may picture it as it then was withoutany difficultyand such is the kindness of Timethat one peoples the place with great men andgood, intent on their work and happy in theirexile,rather than with that riff-raffwhich so oftenfound its

way tothese outlyingposts.Across the plain,opposite the entrance to the

c


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Hydreuma, there is a large isolated rock withcliff-like sides, upon which one finds all manner ofinscriptionsnd rough drawings. Here there aretwo Sinaitic inscriptionsf rare value and severalcurious signsin an unknown script,while Ababdehmarks and Arabic letters are conspicuous.

We mounted our camels again at about eleveno'clock,and rode towards the wall of the Medik es-Salam hills ahead, passing into their shadows soonafter noonday. We halted for luncheon in theshade of a group of rocks, and our meal was en-ivened

by the presence of two butterflies whichseemed out of place in the barren desert, and yetin harmony with the breezy,light-heartedspiritofthe place. Early in the afternoon we rode on, butan hour had not passed when some obvious in-cripti

on the rocks to the left of the track,opposite a point where the road bends sharply tothe right,attracted my attention. These provedto date from the Middle Empire, about B.C. 2000,and no doubt marked a camp of that date. Thenames of various officials were given, and a prayeror two to the gods was to be read. Rounding thecorner, we had no sooner settled ourselves to thecamels' trot than another group of inscriptionsnthe rocks to the right of the path necessitated afurther halt. Here there were two very important


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graffitif the time of Akbnaton ; and considerablelightis thrown by one of them upon the fascinatingperiod of the religiousrevolution of that king.One sees three cartouches, of which the first isthat of Queen Thiy, the second reads Amonhotep(IV.), and the third seems to have given thename Akhnaton ; but both this cartouche and thatof Thiy are erased. The three cartouches areplaced together above the symbols of sovereignty,and below the rays of the sun's disk, thus showingthat Akhnaton was but a boy of tender yearsunder his mothers guidance when he first cameto the throne, and that the Aton worship hadalready begun. It would be too long a matterto explain the significanceof this inscriptionhere, but those who are of an inquiring mindmay turn to the article on this subject in theOctober number of ' Blackwood's Magazine ' for1907, where I have described how the recentlyfound mummy of Akhnaton proved to be thatof a very young man.

The shadows were lengthening when we oncemore mounted and trotted up the valley, whichpresently led into more open ground ; but afterhalf an hour's ride a second Eoman station cameinto sight,and again the grumbling camels had tokneel. The buildingis much ruined, and is not of


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great interest to those who have already seen theHydreuma and other stations. As we continuedthe journey the sun set behind us, and in thegrowing moonlight the valleylooked ghostly andwonderfully beautiful. The shapes of the rocksbecame indistinct,and one was hardly aware whenthe well known as Bir Hammamat was at lastreached. This well lies in a flat,gravellyamphi-heatre

amidst the rugged hills,which press in onall sides. It is in all about six hours' ride i.e.,twenty-eight or thirty miles from Lageta ; butour several halts had spread the journey overtwice that length of time. The well is circularand fairlylarge,and stones dropped into its pitch-dark depths seemed a long time in striking thewater. A subterranean stairway, restored inrecent years by a mining company, runs down at-ne

side to the water's level ; and at its doorwayin the moonlight we sat and smoked until thebaggage camels came up.

The next morning we rode up a valley whichwas now tortuous and narrow. This is the WadyHammamat of the archaeologist,nd the WadyFowakhieh of the natives. Dark, threateninghills towered on either side, as though eager toprison for ever the deeds once enacted at theirfeet. One's voice echoed amongst the rocks, and


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Under the tamarisks of the oasis of Lag-eta. Page 3

Rir Hammamat, lookingsouth. Page 36.

Pl. V


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the wind carried the sound down the valley andround the bend, adding to it its own quiet whispers.A ride of about half an hour's length broughtus to some ruined huts where the ancient quarry-nien had lived in the days of the Pharaohs. Fromthis point onwards for perhaps a mile the rockson either side are dotted with inscriptions,fromwhich a part of the history of the valley maybe learnt. The place is full of whispers. As thebreeze blows round the rocks and up the silentwater -courses it is as though the voices of menlong since forgotten were driftinguncertainly by.One feels as though the rocks were peopled withinsistent entities,all muttering the tales of longago. Behind this great rock there is somethinglaughing quietly to itself; up this dry waterfallthere is a sort of whimpering ; and here in thissilent recess one might swear that the word to besilent had been passed around. It is only thewind and the effect of the contrast between theexposed and the still places sheltered by therocks ; but, with such a history as is writ uponits walls, one might believe the valley to becrowded with the ghosts of those who havesuffered or triumphed in it.

Wady Fowakhieh extends from the Bir Ham-amatto the well known as Bir Fowakhieh, which


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must look back into the dim uncertainties of thearchaic period for the first evidences of the work-ng

of the quarries in this valley. Many beauti-ullymade bowls and other objects of this tuff

are found in the graves of Dynasty I., fifty-fivecenturies ago ; and my friends and I, scramblingover the rocks, were fortunate enough to find in alittle wady leading northwards from the mainvalley a large rock - drawing and inscriptionofthis date. A vase-maker here offers a prayerto the sacred barque of the hawk -god Horus,which is drawn so clearly that one may see thehawk standing upon its shrine in the boat, anupright spear set before the door ; and one mayobserve the bull's head, so often found in primitivecountries, affixed to the prow ; while the barqueitself is shown to be standing upon a sledge inorder that it might be dragged over the ground.

In Dynasties II. to IV. the objects in themuseums show that the quarries were extensivelyworked, and in Dynasty V. one has the testimonyof local inscriptionsas well. An official underKing Asesa, B.C. 2675, has left his name on therocks on the south of the valley; and the nameof another who lived in the reign of Unas, B.C.2650, is to be seen there. Of the reign of Pepy I.,B.C. 2600, of Dynasty VI., one has more definite


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information. Scanning the rocks one reads ofchief architects, master builders,assistant artisans,scribes, treasurers, ship-captains,nd their familiesstationed at the quarries to procure stone for theornamentation of the pyramid buildings of theking, which are still to be seen at Sakkara, nearCairo ; and these inscriptions mention a certainThethi, who was the master pyramid-builder ofthe king, and therefore was probably in chargeof the expedition.

In the reign of Aty, B.C. 2400, a ships captainnamed Apa came to procure stone for his master'spyramid ; and with him were 200 soldiers and 200workmen. King Imhotep, B.C. 2400, sent his sonZaty with 1000 labourers, 100 quarrymen, and1200 soldiers, to obtain stone ; and he supplied200 donkeys and 50 oxen daily for its transport.But the first reallyinterestinginscriptionon therocks of the valley dates from Dynasty XL, B.C.2050. Here an all too brief story is told by agreat official named Henu, recording an expeditionmade by him to the distant land of Pount inthe eighth year of the reign of Menthuhotep III.The king had ordered Henu to despatch a shipto Pount in order to bring fresh myrrh from thatland of spices,and he had therefore collected anarmy of 3000 men. He set out from Koptos,


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Cartouches of Sety II. on the rocks between Rir Hammamatand Wady Fowakhieh.

s/4^m/f

Inscriptionsn the rocks between Bir Hammamat and Wady Fowakhieh.

Pl. vi.


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travelled over the open desert to the little oasis ofLageta, and so struck the road which we hadfollowed. He seems to have had much considera-ion

for his men, for he says, I made the roada river, and the desert a stretch of field. I gavea leather bottle, a carrying pole,two jars of water,and twenty loaves of bread to each one of the menevery day. When one considers that this means60,000 loaves of bread per day, one's respect forthe organising powers of the ancient Egyptiansmust be considerable. At Wady Fowakhieh heseems to have organised some quarry works forthe king, and presentlyhe pushed on towards theBed Sea, digging wells as he went. The expedi-ion,

which will be recorded later, is then de-cribed;

and Henu states that, on his returnto Wady Fowakhieh, he organised the transportof some five blocks of stone which were to be usedfor making statues.

In the second year of the reign of Menthu-hotep IV., B.C. 2000, so runs another long rockinscription, the Vizier Amonemhat was sent tothe quarries with an expedition of 10,000 men,consistingof miners, artificers,quarrymen, artists,draughtsmen, stone - cutters, gold - workers, andofficials. His orders were to procure an augustblock of the pure costly stone which is in this


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place; and upon it she dropped her young, whilethe whole army of the king watched her. Onecan hear the quarrymen, as they clattered intothe valley,shouting, A miracle, a miracle andsurrounded the incapacitated creature. The endof the tale is told briefly. Then they cut herthroat upon the block, and brought fire. Theblock descended to the Nile in safety.

Another inscriptiontates that this sarcophaguslid was dragged down to the river by an armyof 3000 sailors from the Delta, and thatsacrifices of cattle, goats, and incense were con-tantly

made in order to lighten the labour. Itmust have been an enormous block to drag along ;for even after it was dressed into the requiredshape and size by the masons in Egypt, it wassome 14 feet in length, 7 feet in width, and 3J feetin thickness. Two other blocks brought downfrom these quarries at about the same date aresaid to have been 17 feet in length,while a thirdwas about 20 feet long.

In the reign of Amonemhat I. of Dynasty XII.,B.C. 2000, an officer named Antef was sent to thequarriesto procure a specialkind of stone, so rarethat there was no hunter who knew the marvelof it, and none that sought it had found it. Ispent eight days, says Antef, searching the hills


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for it, but I knew not the place wherein it mightbe. I prostrated myself before Min, before Mut,before the goddess great in magic, and before allthe gods of the highlands, burning incense to themupon the fire. At last,after almost giving up thesearch in despair,he found the required block onemorning just as the sun had topped the dark hillsof the valley,and while his men were just scatter-ng

in all directions to renew the search. Althoughso many centuries have passed since Antef foundhis stone, one feels,when one reads this inscrip-ion

upon the rocks, that it was but yesterday ;and one may picture the sunlit scene when, as hesays, the company were in festivityand theentire army was praising,rejoicing,and doingobeisance.

Under other kings of this dynasty one reads, asone walks up the valley,of works being carried on.One man quarried and carried down to the riverten blocks which were later converted into seatedstatues 8j feet high. Another official speaks ofhis army of 2000 men which he had withhim in this now desolate place ; and a third hasleft an inscriptionreading, I came to these high-ands

with my army in safety,by the power ofMin, the Lord of the Highlands.

So the work continued from generation to


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generation, and the quarryinen, as they sat atnoon to rest themselves in the shade, could readaround them the names of dead kings and for-otten

officials carved upon the rocks, and couldplace their own names in the illustrious company.The troubled years of the Hyksos rule checked thequarrying somewhat ; but in Dynasty XVIII. thelabours were renewed, though unfortunately nolong inscriptionshave been left to illuminate thedarkness of the historyof the valley. An inscrip-ion

of the time of Akhnaton is to be seen high upon the rocks, but other figureshave been cut overit by Sety I.

Various kings of Dynasties XIX. and XX. arementioned on the rocks ; but the only importantinscriptiondates from the second year of the reignof Rameses IV., B.C. 1165. It seems that thisking,with a degree of energy unusual in a Pharaohof this debased period,made a personalvisit to thequarries. He led the way to the placehe desired ;he went around the august mountain ; he cut aninscriptionpon this mountain engraved with thegreat name of the king. This inscriptions to beseen on the rocks of the valley,almost as fresh aswhen the scribes had written it. On his return toEgypt he organised an expedition for the purposeof quarrying the stone he had selected. A com-


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1. Inscription at Ahu Kueh.2, 3. Foreign inscriptions at Abu Kueh.4. Inscription at Abu Kueh.5-12. Inscriptions and marks near Abu Kueh.13, 14, 16. Inscriptions at Abu Kueh, reign of Akhnaton.

Page 35.15. Aramaic inscription at Abu Kueh.17. Archaic drawing and inscription in a valley leading from

Wady Fowakhieh. Page 39

PL. VII.


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tSf^TMfi?/*. rj:^L

/ S. tf^s+s * ?

ftsrU2+

IS *?l^i^^ ^^ 0^

fnSW-flffiSP -^

^omu

Pl. vii.


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plete list of the personnel of the expedition isrecorded, and, as it gives one an idea of theusual composition of a force of this kind, I maybe permitted to give it in some detail.

The head of the expedition was none other thanthe High Priest of Amon, and his immediate staffconsisted of the king's butlers, the deputy of thearmy and his secretary, the overseer of the treas-ry,

two directors of the quarry service,the courtcharioteer,and the clerk of the army lists. Twentyclerks of the army, or of the War Office as we wouldsay, and twenty inspectors of the court stableswere attached to this group. Under a militarycommandant there were 20 infantry officers and5000 men, 50 charioteers, 200 sailors,and a mixedbody of 50 priests,cribes,overseers, and veterinaryinspectors. Under a chief artificer and threemaster quarrymen there were 130 stone-cuttersand quarrymen ; while the main work was done by2000 crown slaves and 800 foreign captives. Twodraughtsmen and four sculptorswere employed forengraving the inscriptions,c. A civil magistratewith 50 policekept order amongst this large force,which altogether totalled 8362 men, not includ-ng,

as the inscriptiongrimly states, the 900 soulswho perished from fatigue, hunger, disease, orexposure.


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The supplies for this large expedition weretransported in ten carts each drawn by six yokeof oxen ; and there were many porters laden withbread, meat, and various kinds of cakes. Theinscriptionthen tells us of the sacrifices whichwere continuouslymade to the gods of the desert. There were brought from Thebes the oblationsfor the satisfaction of the gods of heaven andearth. Bulls were slaughtered,calves were smitten,incense streamed to heaven, shedeh and wine waslike a flood, beer flowed in this place. The voiceof the ritual-priestresented these pure offeringsto all the gods of the mountains so that theirhearts were glad.

In this remote desert how easy it is to dreamoneself back in the elder days The valley,pressed close on either side by the rocks aroundwhich the whispers for ever wander, echoes onceagain with the ring of the chisels ; and in the windthat almost ceaselesslyrushes over the ancienttracks, one can see the flutteringgarments of thequarry men as they pass to and from their work.As we sat at the door of our tents in the cool ofthe afternoon, the present day seemed now asremote as the past had seemed before ; and, whenthat great moment of sunset was approached, onealmost felt it fittingto burn a pan of incense to


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the old gods of heaven and earth, as the officers ofRameses IY. had done.

The names of later kings, Shabaka, Taharka,Psametik, Nekau, Aahmes II. , and others, lookdown at one from the rocks ; and sometimes thedate is preciselygiven, and the names of theofficials are mentioned. During the Persian periodthe green tuff was in considerable demand for themaking of those lifelike portrait statuettes somany of which are to be seen in the variousmuseums ; and the coarser tuff,which is practicallybreccia, was much used for shrines and sarcophagi.It is curious to see in this distant valley thenames of the Persian kings,Cambyses, Darius I.,Xerxes I.,and Artaxerxes L, written in Egyptianhieroglyphsin the rock inscriptions,ogether withthe year of their reigns in which the quarryingwas undertaken. Nectanebo I. and II., B.C. 370and B.C. 350, have left their names in the valley;and dating from this and the subsequent periodsthere are various Egyptian and Greek inscrip-ions.

In the reign of Ptolemy III., B.C. 240, a littletemple was built near the Bir Fowakhieh at theeast end of the valleyof the quarries. Wanderingover this amphitheatre amidst the hills we cameupon the remains of the little building,which had

D


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been constructed of rough stones augmented bywell-made basalt columns. It was dedicated tothe god Min, the patron of the Eastern Desert ;but as it was only about 12 feet by 22 in area thepriestsof the god could not have commanded thedevotion of more than a few of the quarrymen.Near the temple there are three or four groups ofruined huts, nestling on the hillsides amongst therocks ; and here the quarrymen of the Ptolemaicand Grseco - Roman ages dwelt, as the brokenpottery indicates. There are many traces ofancient gold workings near by, and a ruined houseof modern construction stands as a sad memorialof the unsuccessful attempt to reopen them. Inthe inscriptionsof Dynasties XVIII. -XX. onereads of the gold of Koptos, which must be thegold brought into Koptos from this neighbour-ood

; and at this later period the mines appearto have been worked. A very fine pink granitebegan to be quarried just to the east of this wellin Roman days, and one may stillsee many blockscut from the hillside which have lain there thesetwo thousand years awaiting transport.

In Wady Fowakhieh itself there are manyblocks of tuff,addressed to the Caesars, but neverdispatched to them ; nor is there anything in thistime -forsaken valley which so brings the past


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The camp in Wadi Fowakhieh, looking-down fromthe hills on the north side. The camel tracksare seen passing-along the valley. Page 38.

Wady Fowakhieh, lookingeast. The camel tracks will be noticed again.Pl. viii.


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before one as do these blocks awaiting removal tovanished cities. There are many Greek inscrip-ions

to be seen, the majority being grouped to-etherin a recess amidst the rocks on the south

side of the valley. Here one reads of persons wboworked for Tiberius, Nero, Domitian, and otheremperors ; and there are their drawings of men,animals, and boats before one, as fresh as when anhour at noon was whiled away in their making.From these the last days of the quarrying dates acauseway which passes up the hillside on the southof the valley,and which was intended to ease thedescent of blocks quarriedhigher up. The Romanshave also left watch-towers on the hill-tops, whichindicate that peace did not always reign in thedesert.

The night which closed in on us all too soonbrought with it the silence of the very grave.The wind fell,and the whisperings almost ceased.The young moon which lit the valley seemed toturn all things to stone under its gaze ; and not asound fell from the camelmen or from the camels.The evening meal having been eaten and the pipessmoked, we quietly slipped into our beds ; andwhen the moon had set behind the hills and abso-ute

darkness had fallen upon the valley, onemight have believed oneself as dead and as deep


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in the underworld as the kings whose names wereinscribed upon the black rocks around.

On the following morning we continued ourjourney eastwards towards the Red Sea, alongthe old trade route. This expedition forms asubject which will be treated by itself in the nextchapter, and therefore one may here pass over theweek occupied by the journey, and may resumethe thread of the present narrative at the datewhen we set out from Wady Fowakhieh on ourhomeward way. The day was already hot as wetrotted down the valleyand past the Bir Hamma-mat, where, by the way, we put up another familyof cream-coloured coursers. A couple of hours'trottingbrought us to a cluster of sandstone rockson the north of the now open and wide road, thesehaving been passed in the dusk on the outwardjourney. Here I found one or two inscriptionsnunknown letters, a few Egyptian graffiti,nd alittle Graeco-Roman shrine dedicated to the greatgod Min. On these rocks we ate our luncheon,and rested in the shade ; and in the early after-oon

we mounted once more, passing the secondRoman station half an hour later. A ride of twoand a half hours brought us to the Hydreumaabout sunset, and here we halted to smoke a pipeand stretch our legs. Then in the moonlight we


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rode on once more over the open desert, whichstretched in hazy uncertainty as far as the eyecould see. The oasis of Lageta was reached atabout seven o'clock,and, the night having turnedcold, we were glad to find the camp fires alreadybrightlyburning and the kettle merrily boiling.

We were on the road again soon after sunrise,and, riding towards Koptos, about ten or twelvemiles from Lagdta we passed another Roman en-losure

now almost entirelydestroyed. Our routenow lay to the north of the hills of el Gorn, thesouth side of which we had seen on our outwardjourney ; and after three and a half hours' ridingwe came into sight of the distant Nile valley.The thin line of green trees seemed in the mirageto be swimming in water, as though the period ofthe inundation were upon us again. At the pointwhere this view is first obtained there are somelow hills on the south side of the tracks, and inone of these there is a small red-ochre quarry.The sandstone is veined with ochre, and thequarry had been opened for the purpose of ob-aining

this material for the making of red paint ;but whether the few red markings on the rocksare ancient or mediaeval one cannot say. Herewe ate an early luncheon, and about noon we rodeon over the sun-bathed plain down to the cultiva-


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tion. Leaving the desert our road passed betweenthe fields towards the Nile ; and by two o'clock wereached the picturesque village of Quft, whichmarks the site of the ancient Koptos. We spentthe afternoon in wandering over the ruins of theonce famous caravanserai, and in the evening wetook the train back to Luxor.

Such are the quarries of Hammamat, and suchis the road to them. It is a simple journey, andone able to be undertaken by any active personwho will take the trouble to order a few camelsfrom Keneh. There will come a time when onewill travel to the quarries by automobile, for eventhe present road is hard-surfaced enough to permitof that form of locomotion, and with a little doctor-ng

it will be not far from perfection. A place suchas this wonderful valley,with its whispers and itsechoes, seems to beckon to the curious to come, ifonly to be lost for awhile in the soothing solitudesand moved by the majestic beauty of the hills.To those interested in the olden days the rockshold out an invitation which one is surprised tofind so seldom responded to ; but let any one feelfor an hour the fine freedom of the desert, and seefor an hour the fantasy of the hills, and thatinvitation will not again be so lightly set aside.


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Abandoned sarcophagus on the hillside in Wady Fowakhieh. Page 38.

' /ft

m if

:A typical valley near Wady Fowakhieh

Pl. ix.


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On camel or automobile he will make his way

over the ancient tracks to the dark valley of thequarries ; and there he will remain entranced, justas we, until the business of life calls him back to

the habitations of present-day men.


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III.

THE RED SEA HIGHROAD.

In the reach of the Nile between Quft and Keneh,a few miles below Luxor, the river makes itsnearest approach to the Red Sea, not more than110 miles of desert separating the two waters atthis point. From Quft, the ancient Koptos, toKossair, the little seaport town, there runs thegreat highroad of ancient days, along which theEgyptians travelled who were engaged in theEastern trade. It happened by chance that thisroute led through the Wady FowTakhieh in whichthe famous quarries were situated ; and in thelast chapter I have recorded an expedition madeto that place in 1907. From the quarries I setout with my three friends for the sea ; and, as theroute from the Nile to Wady Fowakhieh has al-eady

been described, it now remains to record itscontinuation eastwards and our journeying upon it.

The history of this highroad is of considerableinterest, for it may be said to be the most

ancient


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The Red Sea Highroad. 57

of the routes of which the past has left us anyrecord ; and its hard surface has been beaten downby the fall of feet almost continuously from thedawn of human things to the present day. It hasbeen thought by some that a large element of theprehistoricinhabitants of the Nile valley cameinto Egypt by this road. Excavations at Quft(Koptos) have shown the city to date fromDynasty I., if not earlier; and the great archaicstatues of Min, the god of the desert, one of whichis to be seen at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford,were here found. The ancient Egyptians alwaysbelieved that the home of their ancestors was inthe land of Pount, the region around Suakin ; andsince so many archaic remains have been found at

Koptos, the terminus of a route which in historicaltimes was sometimes used by persons travellingtoPount, it seems not unlikely that there was acertain infiltration of Pountites into Egypt by wayof Kossair and Quft. These people travellinginships along the coast, Arabians sailingfrom theeastern shores of the Red Sea, or Bed win journeyingby land from Sinai and Suez, may have passedover this road to trade with the inhabitants ofUpper Egypt ; but, on the other hand, there is noevidence to show that any extensive immigrationor invasion took place. The coast of the Red Sea


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is utterlybarren, and the wells are few in number ;and one could more readilyimagine the prehistoricinhabitants of Egypt pushing eastwards on huntingexpeditions until they encountered the sea, andthus opening up the route, than one could picturethese Eastern peoples penetrating from an unten-ble

base to a hostile country at the dawn ofknown days.

Upon the archaic statues of the god Min atKoptos there are many rude drawings scratchedon the stone surface. These represent pterocerasshells,the saws of sawfish, a stag'shead, the fore-art

of an elephant, a hyaena, a young bull, anostrich, and a flyingbird. It is evident that thesedrawings would not have been scratched upon thestatue of the tribal god without some sort of mean-ngbeing attached to them, and it seems probablethat one may see in them the articles of com-erce

which the people of Koptos imported fromthe Red Sea : shells, horn, ivory, feathers, andskins.

The earliest written record of a journey toKossair dates from Dynasty XL, B.C. 2020, whenan official named Henu travelled from Koptos toKossair, and thence to Pount. The king sentme, says Henu, to dispatch a ship to Pountto bring for him the fresh myrrh from the chieftains


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the strange shores of Pount, where the preciousmyrrh- trees abundantly grew and there was talkof gold as of a thing of little worth ; where sleek,bearded men and amazingly fat women sat at thedoors of bee-hive huts raised from the ground uponpiles; and where, walking abroad, one might meetwith giraffesand other surprisingcreatures whoseexistence would not be credited by one's friends athome. An Englishman feels that it would almosthave been worth the four thousand years of sub-equent

oblivion to have seen what these advent-rerssaw

During the next twenty centuries the roadseems to have been in almost continual use, butthere are no interesting inscriptions recordingexpeditions made along it, though one may besure that many of the trading expeditions passedover this route to the land of Pount. The townof Kossair seems to have been called Thaau atthis period, but in Grseco-Roman days this namehas developed into Tuau or Duau, a word writtenin hieroglyphs simply with three stars. Thetrade with Arabia and India which flourishedduring the rule of the Ptolemies brought the roadinto very general use, and Kossair became asimportant a trading town as any in Egypt. The


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ROCK INSCRIPTIONS AT WADY FOWAKHIEH

AND KOSSAIR.

i, 2. Inscriptions near the archaic inscription on Plate vii.

3. Old Kingdom inscription, Wady Fowakhieh.

4. Inscription giving name of King Unas, Wady Fowakhieh.

Page 39.

5. 6, 7. Drawings of the Greek period in Wady Fowakhieh.

Page 5 1.

8. Archaic drawing, Wady Fowakhieh.

9. Greek inscriptions on blocks of quarried stone, WadyFowakhieh.

Page 50.

10. 11, 12. Old Kingdom inscriptions at Wady Fowakhieh.

13. Misspelt inscription of Thothmes III. at Wady Fowakhieh.14. Inscription of Rameses IV., Wady Fowakhieh.

Page 46.

15. 16, 17, 18. Inscriptions on Temple at Wady Fowakhieh. Page 49.

19. Archaic drawing near Bir el Ingliz. Page 70.20. Typical blue-glazed bowl found on ruins of Old Kossair.

Page 86.

21-24. Fragments of Temple at Kossair.

Page 81.

PL. x.


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am

CTV

PIM

nAC^KAIC^OC a enkcpKMCAPoc

on

t^--^tl1t1 fP^ 2tllB?10

12 13

Ifg^Hr?

23 24

Pl. x.


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harbour, however, was so poor that a new portand town was constructed some five miles to thenorth, where a natural bay was easily able to beimproved into a very fair harbour. This new townwas named Philoteras, in honour of the sister ofPtolemy Philadelphos (b.c. 285), while the olderport was now known as Aennum by foreigners,though to the Egyptians both towns were calledDuau. I was fortunate enough to find some blocksof a Ptolemaic temple at the older Kossair, and onone of them was the name Duau, followed by thehieroglyph representing a town written twice toindicate the existence of the two ports. Not in-requen

one finds at Koptos and elsewhere shortinscriptions of this period relating to journeysmade along this route to Kossair, and thenceover the high seas. One example may herebe quoted : To the most high goddess Isis, fora fair voyage for the ship Serapis, Hermaeusdedicates this.

I must be permitted to give in full a very inter-stingtariff of taxes imposed on persons using the

road during the Roman occupation, which wasfound in a ruined guard-house just behind Koptos,at the beginning of the highway. It reads asfollows :


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By Order of the Governor of Egypt. The dues whichthe lessees of the transport service in Koptos, subjectto the Arabian command, are authorised to levy bythe customary scale, are inscribed on this tablet at theinstance of L. Antistius Asiaticus, Prefect of the EedSea slope.

For a Eed Sea helmsman .

bowsman.

an able seaman . a shipyard hand . a skilled artisan . a woman for prostitution immigrant . a wife of a soldier a camel ticket sealing of said ticket .

each ticket for the husband, if mounted,when a caravan is leaving

all his women, at the rate of a donkey .... a waggon with tilt . a ship'smast . . .

yardThe ninth year of the Emperor Csesar Domitian AugustusGermanicus on the 15th of the month of May.In the above tariff it will be seen that the

persons or articles on which taxes were leviedwere such as one might expect to have passedbetween the Nile and the sea ; and only thoseitems concerning women seem to call for explana-


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tion. The very large tax imposed upon prostitutesmust indicate that Indian or Arabian femalescoming into Egypt along this route, and liableto bring with them the evils of the East, couldonly be admitted when they were of the richestand, consequently, best and highest class. Suchwomen were always taxed in the Roman Empire,and in this regard a rather humorous story is toldin Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana.That holy man was accosted by a tax-collectorwhen about to cross the Euphrates, and was askedhis wares. He replied with the somewhat banalremark that he had with him Soj^hrosune kaiDikaiosiine kai 'Andreia

Temperance, Right-ousness,and Courage. The official at once

assessed theseas Doittas, Female slaves, andwould have taxed them as prostitutes,had not

the prophet hastilycorrected him by saying thatthey were not Doiilas but Despoinas, Ladiesof the House The wives of soldiers men-ioned

in the tariff shows that Mommsen wasright in stating that the rule of the emperorswas laxer in Egypt than elsewhere, for beforethe time of Severus it was not possible forlegionariesto contract legal marriages while onactive service ; but in Egypt the marriages wereso far recognised that the wives could be taxed


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as such, and the children could be enrolled aslegionaries.

During mediaeval times this Bed Sea highroadwas much used by traders, but its river terminuswas now removed from Koptos to Kus, a towna few miles farther up-stream, which soon becamesecond only to Cairo in size and wealth. Apottery figureof Buddha, some mediaeval Chinesevases, and a few Arabian antiquities,found inUpper Egypt, are records of the use of this routeat that time. In later days the terminus againshifted to Keneh, a few miles to the north ofKoptos, and to that town there still come Arabiantraders from across the Red Sea, and pilgrimssometimes use it as the base of the journey

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Travels in the Upper Egyptian Deserts 1000079889