Desert Egypt safari – Desert Egypt Safari

Day 01 : Overnight Camping in White Desert or black desert & Dinner Under the Stars:

You will depart from Cairo at 07:00 for the 4-hour drive to the El Bahariya Oasis. Here you will change vehicle and jump on a 4X4 jeep for a thrilling ride along rugged roads to the incredible White Desert with a stop at the cold spring for you to swim in cold sulfuric water. This unique landscape is set in a depression, and its intriguing aspect is the result of the chalk rock formations caused by sandstorms and the chalk deposits that settle on the ground.
You will also visit the Black desert where the sand is caked with a gold and black crust. Nestled between the two deserts, the start of Crystal Mountain offers yet more wondrous sights and is best known for its quartz crystals. Arriving at camp you will find spacious well-ventilated dome tents equipped with mattresses, blankets, sleeping bags and bed sheets. Enjoy a delicious dinner before retiring for a night beneath the stars.
Day 02: El Bahariya Oasis, Magic lake and the English Mountain: After a delightful breakfast in the White Desert or black desert you will return to El Bahariya Oasis for a tour of the city that has been home to Bedouin tribes for centuries. Visit the English mountain to have a satellite overview of the Magic lake and Bawiti town of the capital of Bahariya oasis with all Bahariya oasis features atop the English mountain, You will have the services of an expert Egyptologist guide to answer all of your questions and

Address: 3-Mohamed Abdul Aziz St.-Orouba-Haram,Giza,Egypt.
Tel.Fax.: (+202) 37562167 Mobile :(+2) 0120142155 – 01002759668 – 01282500637
http://www.desertegyptsafari.com contactus@desertegyptsafari.com
Bahariya oasis 2days/1 night
(Black &white desert- Crystal mountain)
Private cars,Private guide&Chef and Private camp
2days 4X4WD sightseeing tours & overnight camp Package All included door to door Summer(June-September) Winter(October-May) 2-5 people Package 250$ USD per person 275$ USD per person 6-10 people Package 200$ USD per person 220$ USD per person 11-15 people Package 160$ USD per person 180$ USD per person
Note: –
 For Single accommodation Please add 60% single supplement per person.
 For Kids less than 2 years free of charge.
 For kids less than 12 years half price.
Above Rate Including: –
 Program includes:
 Transfers from Cairo to/from Bahariya
 All transfers in Bahariya, during safari.
 All your tours and excursions are in Jeeps.
 Camping facilities:
 Transfers through 4X4 Toyota Land Cruisers.
 Single and double dome-shaped tents.
 Tents have mattresses and pillows.
 3 bottles of Water during safari + 1 soft drink.
 Special meals for vegetarians are served upon request (Should be requested
 prior to arrival)
 All food preparation and cooking is done by the camp staff.
 Expert guides for the desert safari.
 include entrance fees to tourist sites or nature reserves
 All Tax and permissions.
Above rate excluding: –
 International flight.
 Egypt entry Visa.
 Tips.
Address: 3-Mohamed Abdul Aziz St.-Orouba-Haram,Giza,Egypt.
Tel.Fax.: (+202) 37562167 Mobile :(+2) 0120142155 – 01002759668 – 01282500637
http://www.desertegyptsafari.com contactus@desertegyptsafari.com
Itinerary: 2days guided tour/1night desert camp

Address: 3-Mohamed Abdul Aziz St.-Orouba-Haram,Giza,Egypt.
Tel.Fax.: (+202) 37562167 Mobile :(+2) 0120142155 – 01002759668 – 01282500637
http://www.desertegyptsafari.com contactus@desertegyptsafari.com
provide insights in to the area’s intriguing history. After lunch there may also be a chance to enjoy a bathe in a thermal spring before your transfer back to Cairo for your hotel drop-off or at Cairo airport for your onward travels.
Time table (hourly itinerary)
Day 1 (Cairo-Bahariyya-White desert):
 After breakfast at your hotel.
 7:00 an early start to Bahariya Oasis (the desert) ( 365 K.M) 4 to 5 hours drive.
 12:00 Arrive Bahariya Oasis, Bawiti Center of Bahariya.
 12:00 to 13:00 Continue the trip with our Jeep Safari to Al-Haiz.
 13:00 to 14:00 Lunch in El-Haiz.
 14:00 to 17:00 Tour the black desert, the crystal mountain, the hot springs, the natural carvings like tens, and the malachite valley, and much more.
 17:00 Arrive at the white desert to see the sunset with the mushroom formations.
 17:00 to 19:00 Enjoy the wonderful atmosphere waiting for your dinner to be prepared by the Bedouin guys.
 19:00 Barbecue dinner under the stars.
 You will get to taste the Bedouin tea.
 Overnight camp (We prepare a big tent, with pillows and mattress). We also provide sleeping bags & American tents.

Day 2 (White desert-Bawiti-Cairo):
 After breakfast in the white desert, 8:00 Transfer back to Bawiti (Bahariya city center).
 10:45 start our tour to see the English mountain and satellite view of Magic Lake.
 11:30 Lunch at Bahariya oasis.
 12:00 to 17:00 Transfer back to Cairo.
 Drop off at your hotel/location in Cairo. ((( Important Note:)))__________________  You will be traveling from Cairo to Bahariya in Toyota avanza. 
Address: 3-Mohamed Abdul Aziz St.-Orouba-Haram,Giza,Egypt.
Tel.Fax.: (+202) 37562167 Mobile :(+2) 0120142155 – 01002759668 – 01282500637
http://www.desertegyptsafari.com contactus@desertegyptsafari.com
 Then will substitute with Toyota Land Cruiser in Bahariya to the white desert and back to Bahariya So, If any person of your group is too long and will fit hardly in these cars, please let me know to arrange bigger cars. Remember the following:  Pack a small backpack with necessary items the morning before you leave your accommodation (i.e.: change of clothes, toothbrush, etc.).
 I recommend wearing loose and comfortable clothes. As for shoes try wear wearing a pair of flip flops or flat sandals. The sand gets in everywhere.
 Don’t forget your scarf, hat and sunglasses.
 Bring an external battery for charging electronics and extra batteries for cameras! You won’t have access to electricity the night you sleep in the desert.  If you’re going between September and Feb, nights are cold, so dress accordantly by bringing an extra layer to bundle up.
 Do not eat anything right before dune bashing.
 Try to secure the front passenger seat for a magical view of the dunes.
 This is a choice, but tipping your driver is always a good idea if they did a good job.
 I do not recommend bringing your nice and expensive camera to the desert,
 Unless you have a good place to secure it.
 Sand gets into everything.
 A phone such as the Samsung Note 5 or Galaxy Edge 7 are better options.
 Because of the heat stay away from heavy make-up.
 Using some sunscreen before your departure is always a good idea.
Please bring the following items with you (Tips for packing) passport or ID, comfortable clothing, swim suit, sun protection, camera and/or video camera, wet wipes, toilet paper, snacks,
Address: 3-Mohamed Abdul Aziz St.-Orouba-Haram,Giza,Egypt.
Tel.Fax.: (+202) 37562167 Mobile :(+2) 0120142155 – 01002759668 – 01282500637
http://www.desertegyptsafari.com contactus@desertegyptsafari.com
Medicine and a spirit of adventure. 1-2 loose shirts. At least one long sleeve is a good choice. 1-2 pairs of trousers. 1 sarong. 1 scarf. Sunglasses. Socks and underwear. 1 sweater/jumper. 1 insulated jacket. 1 hat. 1 pair of mittens.
-ficial new regulations:19) hotels governmental of-Corona virus (Covid
For your safety and because of Covid-19 worldwide situation
Egyptian government declared new special permits to be issued from our side as travel agency.
For some hotel types( AirBnb, apartments, hostels, small hotels or big hotels) .
And tourist group type and size (individuals, small groups, incentives, freelancers).
-So, please let us know:
i. Hotel name and address?
ii. Group type and size?
iii. If you are a part of bigger group?
iv. Where have you been before our tour and where are you going after?
v. Any special information about your group?
Please accept our apology for inconvenience,
But these permits are very important and tour might be canceled if not issued. ((((Please don’t hesitate to ask any question you may have before trip starts))))
PAYMENT & CANCELLATION POLICY DOWN PAYMENT direct wire transfer to our company bank account (Preferred):
Address: 3-Mohamed Abdul Aziz St.-Orouba-Haram,Giza,Egypt.
Tel.Fax.: (+202) 37562167 Mobile :(+2) 0120142155 – 01002759668 – 01282500637
http://www.desertegyptsafari.com contactus@desertegyptsafari.com
Also, we Offer Down Payment System for more facilities as you can pay part (25%-50%)online and the rest at Pick up time without any problem and refundable on Cancellation as our cancellation policy roles. If you need to make a down payment and the rest during the trip is also available
Credit Card PAYMENT:
Credit Card payments are collected by Tab.travel.com acting as an authorized agent of Nile Valley General Supplies Subsequently Tab.travel will appear as Tab.travel*TOUR BOOKING on your credit card statement. The domain where you enter and process your payment is owned and operated by Tab.travel payments are due upon receipt. If payment is not received or payment method is declined or charged back then the buyer forfeits the ownership of any items purchased and If no payment is received or if a chargeback is made by the buyer after the tour date then our third-party Tab.travel has the right to dispute it.
Optional tours:
Any Optional tours such as mummies room at the Egyptian museum entry inside any of the pyramids, Abu Simbel, boat trip. Tutankhamen tomb is not included unless otherwise stated and added on during the booking process and if the customer decided to do any of those optional visits then the required tickets will be paid by the Customer.

CANCELLATION POLICY
Daily Trips -over day trips or overnight trips by Cars
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the activity starts
Transfers
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the activity starts
Trips by Flight
The cancellation fees on all domestic flights in case you book a tour and you would like to cancel it at any time before starting your tours. The cancellation fees of the domestic flights are subject to the airline’s cancellation policy which changes from case to another. The rest of the paid amount will be refunded after deducting the airline tickets cancellations fees.
Nile cruise
Address: 3-Mohamed Abdul Aziz St.-Orouba-Haram,Giza,Egypt.
Tel.Fax.: (+202) 37562167 Mobile :(+2) 0120142155 – 01002759668 – 01282500637
http://www.desertegyptsafari.com contactus@desertegyptsafari.com
Free cancellation up to 8 days before the activity starts Between 7 and 4 days before your arrival date, 75% of the entire tour price will be deducted.
Refund:
A refund will normally be made to the same card account and using the same method as the original payment. No refunds are possible for No-Show.
TIPPING KITTY:
Tips: Is a customary attitude for expressing one’s satisfaction of good services rendered to him by staff on duty with him. We advise if you are willing to offer it, this would be great – if not, you are not obliged to do it
COMPLAINTS:
If you have a complaint while you are in Egypt. Please notify the company (Nile Valley ) immediately, as most problems can be solved on the spot, if you feel your problem has still not been resolved please call the chairman of the company, but if after you return home you are still not satisfied you must e-mail us at contactus@nilevalleytravel.com or contact us via WhatsApp +20 1201421551
Acceptance Of The Agreement:
The contract constituted by the Company’s acceptance of the Client’s booking subject to these Booking Conditions shall constitute the entire agreement between the Client and the Company, so the payment of a deposit or final payment by bank transfer or credit card indicates that tour participants have read and accepted all terms and conditions and agree to abide by them.
Accommodation:
Unless otherwise stated, generally it is based on two persons sharing a room (twin sharing). Room for the single occupant is available with an additional supplementary rate. Hotels and lodges are named as an indication/guide of category and rooms may be reserved at similar establishments. Published prices are based on tariff and other costs prevailing at the time of printing, and are subject to change without notice.
Flights:
Domestic flights:
Address: 3-Mohamed Abdul Aziz St.-Orouba-Haram,Giza,Egypt.
Tel.Fax.: (+202) 37562167 Mobile :(+2) 0120142155 – 01002759668 – 01282500637
http://www.desertegyptsafari.com contactus@desertegyptsafari.com
The programs quoted on the average price of flights with approximate timings: Hurghada-Cairo at 05:30 arrive in Cairo at 06:30 Cairo – Luxor At 05:30 am arriving at 06:30 Aswan – Cairo at 22:00 at 23:30 & Vice versa. In case you need to adjust your flight timings, it will be subject to an extra supplement. Luxor/Sharm (most time, it is connected by flight via Cairo Airport) International flights Nile Valley an assist you with international flights if needed. Business-class:: If the only available flight option is business class, there will be extra supplement will be applied above the announced Price on web site
Responsibility:
We act only as an agent for the participants in regard to travel, whether by railroad, boat, aircraft, or any other convenience and assumes no liability for injury, illness, damage, loss accident, delay or irregularity to person or property resulting directly or indirectly from any of the following causes; -Weather, acts of God, force major, acts of government or other authorities, wars, civil disturbances, labour disputes, riots, theft, mechanical breakdowns, quarantines or acts of default, delays, cancellations or changes of any hotel, carrier, or restaurant. No responsibility is accepted for any additional expenses.
Special Requests:
If the Client has any special requests, he should inform the Company at the time of booking. The Company and its suppliers will try to meet such requests but, as these do not form part of the Contract, the Company does not guarantee to do so, including for pre-bookable seats. If the Company confirms that a special request has been noted or passed to the supplier or refers to it on the confirmation invoice or elsewhere, this is not a guarantee to meet it. The Client will not be specifically notified if a special request cannot be met. The Company does not accept bookings which are conditional on the fulfilment of any special request.
Children Policy:
Policy- For Packages + Nile Cruises + Hotels
0 – 1 years old Free of Charge
2 – 5 25% of total tour cost
6 – 11.99 50% of total tour cost
+12 Are considered adults
Address: 3-Mohamed Abdul Aziz St.-Orouba-Haram,Giza,Egypt.
Tel.Fax.: (+202) 37562167 Mobile :(+2) 0120142155 – 01002759668 – 01282500637
http://www.desertegyptsafari.com contactus@desertegyptsafari.com
If your tour package includes flights, an extra supplement for your child may apply.
2nd Policy – For sightseeing tours & shore excursions
0 – 5 free of charge
6 – 11 50 % of total tour cost
12+ are considered adults
If your sightseeing tours include domestic flights, an extra supplement for your child may apply. Our company Bank details
Company registration No.
69292
Company TAX ID
336938314
Company address
25 Sayed Saleh St.-Ouroba-Omranyia-Giza
Postal Address
12556
Bank Name
Banque Misr
Bank main branch address 153 Mohamed Farid St. banquemisr tower- Down Town Cairo
Bank main branch postal address
11518
Company bank Account Name
Nile Valley General Supplies
BIC ( SWIFT )
BMISEGCX140 $ USD Account 1660120000000570 IBAN EG550002016601660120000000570 € Euro Account 1660130000000239 IBAN EG060002016601660130000000239 EGP Pound Account 1660001000004670 IBAN EG520002016601660001000004670
Branch
Qasr El Ahram
Bank branch Address
171-EL Haram St.
Bank branch city
Giza
Branch P. Box
12556
Bank Country
Egypt
Address: 3-Mohamed Abdul Aziz St.-Orouba-Haram,Giza,Egypt.
Tel.Fax.: (+202) 37562167 Mobile :(+2) 0120142155 – 01002759668 – 01282500637
http://www.desertegyptsafari.com contactus@desertegyptsafari.com
Remember, we are very happy to answer any question you may have before trip starts.
Mohamed Marghany
Tour Operator
Company registration No.69292
Company TAX ID336938314
3Mohamed Abdul Aziz st-Orouba- haram
-Giza-Egypt.
FAX: +20237562167
+201282500637 +201002759668
Mobile: +201201421551 +201003580083
www.NileValleyTravel.com
www.DesertEgyptSafari.com
www.NileCruised.com

Early morning pickup from Cairo or Giza hotel, Our expert guide who will join you for the 2 days trip will take you in an AC van and drive for 95 Km to El Fayoum.

start you visit exploring The famous Water Wheels which providing the oasis with irrigation water since the Ptolemaic era.

Then drive to Lake Qaroun that hosting several kinds of birds. It is also belived to be one of the oldest natural lakes world wide.

Then continue onto Wadi Al Rian or Al Rayan Valley is 42m below sea level, it consists of 2 lakes connected by the only existing waterfalls in the country. Move later to an ancient city that built by Emnemohoteb III during the third pharaonic dynasty and named Medinet Madi.

End your first day at Wadi Hitan or (The Valley of Whales) where you will spend your night camping Egypt desert safari.

Meal plan: Lunch, Dinner

Day 02: Wadi Hitan Protectorate / Back To Cairo

The second day activity starts after breakfast, you will explore the national park of Wadi Hitan, it exists within the Protectorate ofWadi El Rayan and it was named as a world Heritage Site aged 40 million years due to old whale skeletons discover there. Pass by the Mudawara Mountain on your way to Qasr Qaroun which is 55 km North West of Fayoum City. On the sight of Quaron Palace there is a well-preserved temple and remains of the Graeco Roman City. End you 2 days tour at Karanis ruins That consists of number of monuments goes back to the Roman, Coptic and Early Islamic ages. Drive back to your Cairo or Giza hotel.

Meal plan: Breakfast

Price includes:

Hotel pickup and drop off service
All transfers by modern private AC van
Entrance fees as per itinerary
Expert personal Egyptologist guide
A Bottel of mineral Water per day
Meals as per the tour itinerary
All taxes & service charge

Price excludes:

Any extras not mentioned
Personal expenses

Notes:

Trip runs every day.
Prices are quoted in US$ per person.
Tour is operated privately.
Discounts are available for groups and children.

Price Per Person:

Single : 395 Usd
From 2 to 3 pax: 245 Usd per person
From 4 to 10 pax : 199 Usd per person
NYU IFA LIBRARY
62045v
ill
TRAVELS IN THE
UPPER EGYPTIAN
DESERTS
The
McAfee
Ubraiy
ofAncient
Art
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS
~xTravels in the
Upper Egyptian Deserts
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Crown 8vo, ios. 6d. net.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AKHNATON,
PHARAOH OF EGYPT.
Illustrated. Second Impression.
Demy 8vo, 7s. 6d. net.
THE TREASURY OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History
and Archaeology.
With Illustrations.
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS,
EDINBURGH AND LONDON.Frontispiece
Travels in the
Upper Egyptian Deserts
BY
ARTHUR E. P. WEIGALL
INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF UPPER EGYPT, DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES
AUTHOR OF { A REPORT ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF LOWER NUBIA,’ *A CATALOGUE OF
THE WEIGHTS AND BALANCES IN THE CAIRO MUSEUM,’ ‘a GUIDE TO
THE ANTIQUITIES OF UPPER EGYPT,’ ‘ DIE MASTABA DES
GEMNIKAl’ (WITH PROFESSOR VON BISSING), ETC.
SECOND IMPRESSION
William Blackwood and Sons
Edinburgh and London
1913
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
arts
5
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.PREFACE.
Some of the chapters in this book have appeared
as articles in ‘ Blackwood’s Magazine.’ The various
journeys here recorded have been made in
the ordinary course of the work of inspection,
and have been reported in the usual official
manner. These less technical descriptions have
been written in leisure hours, and the illustrations
here published are selected from a large number
of photographs and drawings rapidly made by the
wayside. The journey to Wady Hammamat and
Kossair was made in the company of three
painters, Mr Charles Whymper, Mr Walter
Tyndale, and Mr Erskine Nicol, to whom my
thanks are due, as also they are to Mr John
Wells, with whom I travelled to Gebel Dukhan.
I am indebted to Prof. Sayce and Mr Seymour
de Ricci for several notes on the Greek inscripviii
Preface.
tions at Wady Abad. On some of the journeys
I was accompanied by Mahmoud Effendi Rushdy
and Mahmoud Effendi Muhammed, Inspectors of
the Department of Antiquities, whose assistance
was valuable.
ARTHUR E. P. WEIGALL.
Luxor,
Upper Egypt.
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 169ILLUSTRATIONS.
PLATE PAOB
the head of wady gatar . . Frontispiece
I. 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. PHOTOGRAPHED
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
xii Illustrations.
66
74
XL BIR ES SID, THE WELL AT THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE
RED SEA HIGHROAD ….. 66
THE ROMAN FORTRESS OF ABU ZERAH, LOOKING SOUTHEAST
…….
XII. DESERT PANORAMA FROM A HILL – TOP TWO HOURS’
RIDE EAST OF BIR ES SID, LOOKING EAST. THE
ROAD IS SEEN PASSING TO NORTH AND SOUTH OF
THIS HILL AND JOINING UP FURTHER TO THE
EAST …….
XIII. KOSSAIR. ARABIAN BOATS ON THE BEACH • • 80
A STREET IN KOSSAIR • • 80
XIV. THE INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE AT KOSSAIR . • 86
THE MAIN ENTRANCE OF THE FORTRESS AT KOSSAIR . 86
XV. THE START FROM KENEH. NATIVE POLICE LOADING THE
CAMELS …… 90
MIDDAT REST AT EL GHAITEH. CAMELS FEEDING FROM
THE BUSHES ……
XVI. THE ROMAN STATION AT EL GHAITEH, LOOKING DOWN
FROM THE OFFICERS’ QUARTERS ON THE HILL. A
DRY RIVER-BED BORDERED BY BUSHES RUNS ACROSS
THE PLAIN ……
A TANK FOR STORING WATER INSIDE THE STATION OF
EL GHAITEH …… 96
XVII. THE EXCAVATION INSIDE THE ENCLOSURE OF EL SARGIEH
……. 104
THE ROMAN STATION AT EL GREIYEH. THE ANIMAL
LINES. THE BRICK PILLARS SUPPORTED THE ROOF
UNDER WHICH WERE THE NIGHT-STALLS . . 104
XVIII. 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 PORPHYRY
WAS TAKEN . • • • •
90
96
108
108
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, LOOKING
SOUTH FROM THE CAUSEWAY LEADING TO THE
MAIN QUARRY. THE ROUND PILES OF STONE IN
THE FOREGROUND ARE BUILT AT INTERVALS ALONG
THE CAUSEWAY . . . . .114
XX. 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 . . . .120
XXL MONS CLAUDIANUS. EAST END OF THE TEMPLE . 124
MONS CLAUDIANUS, LOOKING OVER THE TOWN TO THE
TEMPLE 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 . . . . .128
MONS CLAUDIANUS. PEDESTAL OF THE ALTAR IN THE
FORECOURT OF THE TEMPLE. THE ALTAR ITSELF IS
SEEN BROKEN IN THE FOREGROUND . .128
XXIII. 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
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 142
FRONT VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD . .142
XXVI. THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD. THE EAST END OF
THE 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 …… 146
XXVII. THE MAIN ENTRANCE OF THE ROMAN STATION OF
WADY ABAD, LOOKING WEST FROM INSIDE THE
ENCLOSURE . . . . . .150
THE PILES OF STONE ERECTED OPPOSITE THE TEMPLE
OF WADY ABAD ….. 150
XXVIII. INSCRIPTIONS AND DRAWINGS IN AND NEAR THE
TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD . . . .154
XXIX. 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 . 166
XXXII. THE INSCRIBED ROCK, FROM THE NORTH-WEST . 174
THE INSCRIBED ROCK, FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. . 174
XXXIII. THE ELEPHANTINE ROAD, LOOKING ALONG IT TOWARDS
ASWAN …… 184
VIEW OF THE ISLANDS IN THE RIVER, ETC., FROM
NEAR THE INSCRIBED ROCK AT THE HEAD OF THE
ELEPHANTINE ROAD . . . . ,184
Travels in the
Upper Egyptian Deserts,
THE EASTERN DESERT AND ITS INTERESTS.
I know a young man who declares that after
reading a certain explorer’s description of a
journey across the burning Sahara, he found to
his amazement that his nose was covered with
freckles. The reader will perhaps remember how,
on some rainy day in his childhood, he has sat
over the fire and has read sea-stories and dreamed
sea -dreams until his lips, he will swear, have
tasted salt. Alas, one’s little agility in the art
of narration is wholly inadequate for the production,
at this time of life, of any such phenomena
upon the gentle skins of those who chance to read
these pages. Were one a master-maker of literature,
one might herewith lead the imaginative so
A
2 Travels in Egypt desert safari .
straight into the boisterous breezes of Egypt, one
might hold them so entranced in the sunlight
which streams over the desert, that they would
feel, wherever they might be seated, the tingling
glow of the sun and the wind upon their cheeks,
and would hold their hands to their eyes as a
shelter from the glare. The walls of their rooms
would fall flat as those of Jericho ; and outside
they would see the advancing host of the invaders
—the sunshine, the north wind, the scudding
clouds, the circling eagles, the glistening sand,
the blue shadows, and the rampant rocks. And
the night closing over the sack of their city, they
would see the moonlight, the brilliant stars, the
fluttering bats, the solemn owls ; and they would
hear the wailing of the hyaenas and the barking
of the dogs in the distant camps. If one only
possessed the ability, one might weave such a
magic carpet for those who knew how to ride
upon it, that, deserting the fallen Jericho of their
habitation, they would fly to the land of the invaders
which they had seen, and there they would
be kept as spell-bound and dazzled by the eyes
of the wilderness as ever a child was dazzled by a
tale of the sea.
But with this ability lacking it is very doubtful
whether the reader will be able to appreciate the
The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 3
writers meaning ; and, without the carpet, it is
a far cry from Upper Egypt, where these words
are written, to the fireside where they are read.
Nevertheless I will venture to give an account
here of some journeys made in the Upper Egyptian
desert, in the hope rather of arousing interest in a
fascinating country than of placing on record much
information of value to science ; although the
reader interested in Egyptian archaeology will find
some new material upon which to speculate.
The Upper Egyptian desert is a country known
only to a very few. The resident, as well as the
visitor, in Egypt raises his eyes from the fertile
valley of the Nile to the bare hills, and lowers
them once more with the feeling that he has
looked at the wall of the garden, the boundary
of the land. There is, however, very much to
be seen and studied behind this wall ; and those
who penetrate into the solitudes beyond will
assuredly find themselves in a world of new
colours, new forms, and new interests. In the
old days precious metal was sought here, ornamental
stone was quarried, trade – routes passed
through to the Red Sea, and the soldiery of
Egypt, and later of Rome, marched from station
to station amidst its hills. The desert as one
sees it now is, so to speak, peopled with the
4 Travels in Egypt desert safari
ghosts of the Old World ; and on hidden hillslopes
or in obscure valleys one meets with the
remains of ancient settlements scattered through
the length and breadth of the country.
The number of persons who have had the energy
to climb the garden wall and to wander into this
great wilderness is so small that one might count
the names upon the fingers. Lepsius, the German
Egyptologist, passed over some of the routes
on which antiquities were to be met with
;
GoleniscbefF, the Russian Egyptologist, checked
some of his results ; Schweinfurth, the German
explorer, penetrated to many of the unknown
localities, and mapped a great part of the country;
Bellefonds Bey, the Director -General of Public
Works in Egypt under Muhammed Aly, made a
survey of the mineral belt lying between the river
and the Red Sea ; and during the last score of
years various prospectors and miners have visited
certain points of interest to them. The Government
Survey Department is now engaged in
mapping this Eastern Desert, and two most
valuable reports have already been published
while for a few years there existed a Mines
Department, whose director, Mr John Wells,
made himself acquainted with many of the routes
and most of the mining centres. Thus, most of
The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 5
the journeys here to be recorded have not been
made over absolutely new ground ; though, except
for the expert reports of the Survey Department
and some papers by Schweinfurth, it would be
a difficult matter to unearth any literature on
the subject. In describing these journeys, however,
one is often enabled to indulge in the not
unpleasing recollection that one is writing of
places which no other European eyes have seen.
Those who have travelled in Egypt will not
need to be told how the Nile, flowing down from
the Sudan to the distant sea, pushes its silvery
way through the wide desert : now passing
between the granite hills, now through regions
of sandstone, and now under the limestone cliffs.
A strip of verdant cultivated land, seldom more
than six or eight miles wide, and often only as
many yards, borders the broad river; and beyond
this, on either side, is the desert. In Upper
Egypt one may seldom take an afternoon’s ride
due east or due west without passing out either
on to the sun-baked sand of a limitless wilderness
or into the liquid shadows of the towering hills.
For the present we are not concerned with the
western desert, which actually forms part of the
great Sahara, and one’s back may therefore be
turned upon it.
6 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
Eastwards, behind the hills or over the sand,
there is in most parts of the country a wide
undulating plain, broken here and there by the
limestone outcrops. Here the sun beats down
from a vast sky, and the traveller feels himself
but a fly crawling upon a brazen table. In all
directions the desert stretches, until, in a leaden
haze, the hot sand meets the hot sky. The
hillocks and points of rock rise like islands from
the floods of the mirage in which they are reflected
; and sometimes there are clumps of
withered bushes to tell of the unreality of the
waters.
The scenery here is often of exquisite beauty
;
and its very monotony lends to it an interest
when for a while the grouping of the hills ceases
to offer new pictures and new harmonies to the
eye. Setting out on a journey towards the Red
Sea one rides on camel-back over this rolling plain,
with the sun bombarding one’s helmet from above
and the wind charging it from the flank ; and, as
noonday approaches, one often looks in vain for a
rock under which to find shade. Naturally the
glaring sand is far hotter than the shady earth
under the palms in the cultivation ; but the
stagnant, dusty, fly-filled air of the groves is not
to be compared with the clear atmosphere up in
The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 7
the wilderness. There are no evil odours here,
breeding sickness and beckoning death. The wind
blows so purely that one might think it had not
touched earth since the gods released it from the
golden caverns. The wide ocean itself has not less
to appeal to the sense of smell than has the fair
desert.
Descending from the camel for lunch, one lies on
one’s back upon the sand and stares up at the deep
blue of the sky and the intense whiteness of a
passing cloud. Raising oneself, the Nile valley
may still be seen, perhaps, with its palms floating
above the vaporous mirage ; and away in the
distance the pale cliffs rise. Then across one’s
range of sight a butterfly zigzags, blazing in the
sunlight ; and behind it the blue becomes darker
and the white more extreme. Around one, on the
face of the desert, there is a jumbled collection of
things beautiful : brown flints, white pebbles of
limestone, yellow fragments of sandstone, orangecoloured
ochre, transparent pieces of gypsum,
carnelian and alabaster chips, glittering quartz.
Across the clear patches of sand there are all
manner of recent footprints, and the incidental
study of these is one of the richest delights of
a desert journey. Here one may see the fourpronged
footprints of a wagtail, and there the
8 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
arger marks of a crow. An eagle’s and a vulture’s
footmarks are often to be observed, and the identification
of those of birds such as the desert
partridge or of the cream-coloured courser is a
happy exercise for one’s ingenuity. Here the
light, wiggly line of a lizard’s rapid tour abroad
attracts the attention, reminding one of some
American globe-trotter’s route over Europe ; and
there footprints of the jerboa are seen leading in
short jumps towards its hole. Jackals or foxes
leave their dainty pad-marks in all directions,
and one may sometimes come across the heavy
prints of a hysena, while it is not unusual to meet
with those of a gazelle.
In the afternoon one rides onwards, and perhaps
a hazy view of the granite hills may now be
obtained in the far distance ahead. The sun
soon loses its strength, and shines in slantinglines
over the desert, so that one sees oneself
in shadow stretched out to amazing lengths, as
though the magnetic power of night in the east
were already dragging in the reluctant darknesses
to its dark self. Each human or camel footprint
in the sand is at this hour a basin filled with blue
shade, while every larger dent in the desert’s
surface is brimful of that same blue ; and the
colour is so opaque that an Arab lying therein
The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 9
clad in his blue shirt is almost indistinguishable
at a distance. Above one the white clouds go
tearing by, too busy, too intent, it would seem,
on some far-off goal to hover blushing around the
sun. The light fades, and the camp is pitched
on the open plain ; and now one is glad to wrap
oneself in a large overcoat, and to swallow the hot
tea which has been prepared over a fire of the
dried scrub of Egypt desert safari .
The nights in the desert are as beautiful as the
days, though in winter they are often bitterly cold.
With the assistance of a warm bed and plenty of
blankets, however, one may sleep in the open in
comfort ; and only those who have known this
vast bedroom will understand how beautiful night
may be. If one turns to the east, one may stare
at Mars flashing red somewhere over Arabia, and
westwards there is Jupiter blazing above the
Sahara. One looks up and up at the expanse
of star-strewn blue, and one’s mind journeys of
itself into the place of dreams before sleep has
come to conduct it thither. The dark desert
drops beneath one; the bed floats in mid -air,
with planets above and below. Could one but
peer over the side, earth would be seen as small
and vivid as the moon. But a trance holds the
body inactive, and the eyes are fixed upon the
io Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
space above. Then, quietly, a puff of wind brings
one down again to realities as it passes from darkness
to darkness. Consciousness returns quickly
and gently, points out the aspect of the night,
indicates the larger celestial bodies, and as quickly
and gently leaves one again to the tender whispers
of sleep.
When there is moonlight there is more to carry
the eye into the region of dreams on earth than
there is in the heavens ; for the desert spreads out
around one in a silver, shimmering haze, and no
limit can be placed to its horizons. The eye cannot
tell where the sand meets the sky, nor can the
mind know whether there is any meeting. In the
dimness of coming sleep one wonders whether the
hands of the sky are always just out of reach of
those of the desert, whether there is always another
mile to journey and always another hill to
climb ; and, wondering, one drifts into unconsciousness.
At dawn the light brings one back to
earth in time to see the sun pass up from behind
the low hills. In contrast to the vague night the
proceeding is rapid and business-like. The light
precedes its monarch only by half an hour or so
;
and ere the soft colours have been fully appreciated,
the sun appears over the rocks and flings a sharp
In the Desert. The Author is seen on the near camel.
On the edg-e oi’ the Eastern Desert.– Page 30.
Pl. 1.

The Eastern Desert and its Interests, n
beam into the eyes of every living thing, so that in
a moment the camp is stirred and awakened.
During the second or third day’s ride one generally
enters the granite regions, and one is lost
amidst the intricate valleys which pass between
the peaks of the hills. Here one may find plenty
of shelter from the sun’s rays in the shadow of
the cliffs ; and as the camel jogs along over the
hard gravel tracks, or as one sits for refreshment
with the back propped against a great grey
boulder, the view which is to be enjoyed is often
magnificent. On the one side the dark granite,
porphyry, or breccia rocks rise up like the towered
and buttressed walls of some fairy-tale city ; while
on the other side range rises behind range, and a
thousand peaks harmonise their delicate purples
and greys with the blue of the sky. When the
sun sets these lofty peaks are flushed with pink,
and, like mediators between earth and heaven,
carry to the dark valleys the tale of a glory which
one cannot see. There is usually plenty of scrub
to be found in the valleys with which to build the
evening fires, and with good luck one might replenish
the food-supplies with the tender flesh of
the gazelle. Every two or three days one may
camp beside a well of pure water, where the camels
12 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
may drink, and from which the portable tanks may
be refilled.
Near these wells there are sometimes a few
Bedwin to be found tending their little herds of
goats : quiet, harmless sons of the desert, who
generally own allegiance to some Shekh living in
the Nile valley. One’s guides and camel-men
exchange greetings with them, and pass the latest
news over the camp fires. Often, however, one
may journey for many days without meeting either
a human being or a four-footed animal, though on
the well-marked tracks the prints of goats and
goatherds, camels and camel-men, are apparent.
No matter in what direction one travels, hardly
a day passes on which one does not meet with
some trace of ancient activity. Here it will be a
deserted gold-mine, there a quarry ; here a ruined
fortress or town, and there an inscription upon the
rocks. Indications of the present day are often so
lacking, and Time seems to be so much at a standstill,
that one slips back in imagination to the dim
elder days. The years fall from one like a garment
doffed, and one experiences a sense of relief from
their weight. A kind of exhilaration, moreover,
goes with the thought of the life of the men of
thousands of years ago who lived amongst these
changeless hills and valleys. Their days were so
The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 13
full of adventure : they were beset with dangers.
One has but to look at the fortified camps, the
watch-towers on the heights, the beacons along the
highroads, to realise how brave were the ” olden
times.” One of the peculiar charms of these hills
of the Eastern Desert is their impregnation with
the 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 old
sounds. Dead ambitions, dead terrors, drift
through these valleys on the wind, or lurk behind
the tumbled rocks. Rough inscriptions on these
rocks tell how this captain or that centurion here
rested, and on the very spot the modern traveller
rests to ease the self-same aches and to enjoy the
self-same shade before moving on towards an
identical goal in the east.
On the third or fourth day after leaving the
Nile one passes beneath the mountains, which here
rise sometimes to as much as 6000 feet ; and beyond
these the road slopes through the valleys
down to the barren Red Sea coast, which may be
any distance from 100 to 400 miles from the Nile.
Kossair is the one town on the coast opposite
Upper Egypt, as it was also in ancient times ; and
Berenice, opposite Lower Nubia, was the only other
town north of Sudan territory. Kossair does a
14 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
fast-diminishing trade with Arabia, and a handful
of Egyptian coastguards is kept mildly busy in the
prevention of smuggling. The few inhabitants of
the Egyptian coast fish, sleep, say their prayers,
or dream in the shade of their hovels until death
at an extremely advanced age releases them from
the boredom of existence. Those of them who are
of Arab stock sometimes enliven their days by
shooting one another in a more or less sporting
manner, and by wandering to other and more remote
settlements thereafter ; but those of Egyptian
blood have not the energy even for this amount of
exertion. There is a lethargy over the desert
which contrasts strangely with one’s own desire
for activity under the influence of the sun and the
wind, and of the records of ancient toil which are
to be observed on all sides. It must be that we of
the present day come as the sons of a race still in
its youth ; and in this silent land we meet only
with the worn-out remnant of a people who have
been old these thousands of years.
There was a threefold reason for the activities of
the ancients in the Eastern Desert. Firstly, from
Koptos, a city on the Nile not far from Thebes, to
Kossair there ran the great trade-route with
Arabia, Persia, and India ; from Suez to Koptos
there was a route by which the traders from Syria
The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 15
often travelled ; from Edfu to Berenice there was
a trade-route for the produce of Southern Arabia
and the ancient land of Pount ; while other roads
from point to point of the Nile were often used as
short-cuts. Secondly, in this desert there were very
numerous gold mines, the working of which was
one of the causes which made Egypt the richest
country of the ancient world. And thirdly, the
ornamental stones which were to be quarried in the
hills were in continuous requisition for the buildings
and statuary of Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and Rome.
There is much to be said in regard to the goldmining,
but here space will not permit of more
than the most cursory review of the information.
Gold was used in Egypt at a date considerably
prior to the beginning of written history in
Dynasty I., and there are many archaic objects
richly decorated with that metal. The situation
of many of the early cities of the Nile valley is due
solely to this industry. When two cities of high
antiquity are in close proximity to one another on
opposite banks of the river, as is often the case in
Upper Egypt, one generally finds that the city on
the western bank is the older of the two. In the
case of Diospolis Parva and Khenoboskion, which
stand opposite to one another, the former, on the
west bank, is the more ancient and is the capital
1 6 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
of the province, and the latter, on the east bank,
does not date earlier than Dynasty YI. Of Ombos
and Koptos, the former, on the west bank, has prehistoric
cemeteries around it ; while the latter, on
the east bank, dates from Dynasty I. at the
earliest. Hieraconpolis and Eileithyiapolis stand
opposite to each other, and the former, which is on
the west bank, is certainly the more ancient. Of
Elephantine and Syene, the latter, on the east
bank, is by far the less ancient. And in the case
of Pselchis and Baki (Kubban), the former, on the
west bank, has near it an archaic fortress ; while
the latter, on the east bank, does not date earlier
than Dynasty XII. The reason of this is to be
found in the fact that most of the early cities were
engaged in gold-mining, and despatched caravans
into the Eastern Desert for that purpose. These
cities were usually built on the western bank of
the river, since the main routes of communication
from end to end of Egypt passed along the western
desert. Mining stations had, therefore, to be
founded on the eastern bank opposite to the
parent cities ; and these stations soon became
cities themselves as large as those on the western
shore. Thus the antiquity of the eastern city in
each of these cases indicates at least that same
antiquity for the mining of gold.
Desert vegetation. The Coloquintida plant.
A near view of the Coloquintida plant. Photographed in the Wady Abad.
Pl. ii.

The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 17
Throughout what is known as the old kingdom,
gold was used in ever- increasing quantities, but an
idea of the wealth of the mines will best be obtained
from the records of the Empire. About
250,000 grains of gold were drawn by the Yizir
Rekhmara in taxes from Upper Egypt, and this
was but a small item in comparison with the taxes
levied in kind. A king of a north Syrian state
wrote to Amonhotep III., the Pharaoh of Egypt,
asking for gold, and towards the end of his letter
he says : ” Let my brother send gold in very large
quantities, without measure, and let him send more
gold to me than he did to my father ; for in my
brother’s land gold is as common as dust.” To the
god Amon alone Rameses III. presented some
26,000 grains of gold, and to the other gods he
gave at the same time very large sums. In later
times the High Priest of Amon was made also
director of the gold mines, and it was the diverting
of this vast wealth from the crown to the church
which was mainly responsible for the fall of the
Ramesside line.
A subject must here be introduced which will
ever remain of interest to the speculative. Some
have thought that the southern portion of this
desert is to be identified with the Ophir of the
Bible, and that the old gold-workings here are
B
1 8 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
none other than ” King Solomon’s Mines.” In the
Book of Kings one reads, ” And King Solomon
made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is
beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the
land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his
servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea,
with the servants of Solomon. And they came to
Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred
and twenty talents, and brought it to King
Solomon.” Ophir cannot be identified with Arabia,
since there is no gold there ; and hence one may
seek this land of ancient wealth at the southern
end of the Eastern Egyptian Desert. If it is
argued that the Hebrews would have found
difficulties in carrying on mining operations
unmolested in Egyptian territory, it may be
contended on the other hand that King Solomon
may have made some bargain with the Pharaoh :
for example, that the former might mine in a
certain tract of desert if the latter might cut
timber in the Lebanon. The purchase of cedarwood
by the Egyptians is known to have taken
place at about this period, payment in gold being
made ; and therefore it does not require an undue
stretch of the imagination to suppose that the
Hebrews themselves mined the gold. Again, at
the time when King Solomon reigned in all his
The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 19
glory in Palestine, the short-lived Pharaohs of
Egypt sat upon tottering thrones, and were wholly
unable to protect the Eastern Desert from invasion.
The Egyptians often state that they
encountered hostile forces in this land, and
these may not always have consisted of Bedwin
marauders.
No savant has accepted for a moment the various
theories which place Ophir at the southern end of
the African continent ; and the most common view
is that Solomon obtained his gold from the land of
Pount, so often referred to in Egyptian inscriptions.
This country is thought to have been
situated in the neighbourhood of Suakin ; but, as
Professor Naville points out, it is a somewhat
vague geographical term, and may include a large
tract of country to the north and south of this
point. One cannot imagine the Hebrews penetrating
very far over the unknown seas to the
perilous harbours of Middle Africa : one pictures
them more easily huddled in the less dangerous
ports of places such as Kossair or Berenice, or at
farthest in that of Suakin. It is thus quite
probable that some of the gold-workings in the
desert here described are actually King Solomon’s
Mines, and that the country through which the
reader will be conducted is the wonderful Ophir
20 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
itself. Certainly there is no one who can state
conclusively that it is not.
Work continued with unabated energy during
the later periods of Egyptian history, and the
Persian, Greek, and Roman treasuries were filled
consecutively with the produce of the mines.
Several classical writers make reference to these
operations, and sometimes one is told the actual
name and situation of the workings. Diodorus
gives a description of the mines in the Wady
Alagi, and tells how the work was done. The
miners wore a lamp tied to their forehead. The
stone was carried to the surface by children, and
was pounded in stone mortars by iron pestles. It
was then ground to a fine powder by old men and
women. This powdered ore was washed on inclined
tables, the residue being placed in earthen
crucibles with lead, salt, and tin for fluxes, and
was there baked for five days. Agatharchides
describes how the prisoners and negroes hewed
out the stone, and, with unutterable toil, crushed
it in mills and washed out the grains of gold. The
Arabic historian, El Macrizi, states that during
the reign of Ahmed ben Teilun there was great
activity in the mining industry throughout the
Eastern Desert, and Cufic inscriptions of this date
found in the old workings confirm this statement.
One of the riding camels.
One of the cai
Pl. hi.

The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 21
From then, until modern times, however, little
work was done ; but in recent years, as the reader
will no doubt know, many of the ancient workings
have been reopened, and one must admit that if
these are really to be regarded as King Solomon’s
Mines, that potentate must have had a somewhat
lower opinion of Ophir than tradition indicates.
The other cause for the ancient activity in the
Eastern Desert was, as has been said, the need of
ornamental stone for the making of vases, statues,
and architectural accessories. From the earliest
times bowls and vases of alabaster, breccia, diorrte,
and other fine stones were used by the Egyptians,
and the quarries must have already formed quite a
flourishing industry. Soon the making of statuettes,
and later of statues, enlarged this industry,
and with the growth of civilisation it steadily increased.
The galleries of the Cairo Museum, and
those of European museums, are massed with
statues and other objects cut in stone brought
from the hills between the Nile and the Red
Sea. The breccia quarries of Wady Hammamat
were worked from archaic to Roman days ; the
Tourquoise Mountains, not far from Kossair, supplied
the markets of the ancient world ; white
granite was taken from the hills of Um Etgal
;
there were two or three alabaster quarries in con22
Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
stant use ; and in the time of the Roman Empire
the famous Imperial porphyry was quarried in the
mountains of Gebel Dukhan. One may still see
blocks of breccia at Hammamat, of granite at Um
Etgal, or of porphyry at Dukhan, lying abandoned
at the foot of the hills, although numbered and
actually addressed to the Caesars. The towns in
which the quarrymen lived still stand in defiance
of the years, and the traveller who has the energy
to penetrate into the distant valleys where they
are situated may there walk through streets untrodden
since the days of Nero and Trajan, and
yet still littered with the chippings from the dressing
of the blocks.
In the old days the provisioning of the mining
and quarrying settlements must have taxed the
ingenuity even of the Egyptians ; and the establishing
of workable lines of communication with
the distant Nile must have required the most
careful organisation. The caravans bringing food
were of great size, for there were often several
thousands of hungry miners to be fed. In Dynasty
VI. one reads of 200 donkeys and 50 oxen being
used in the transport, and in Dynasty XI. 60,000
loaves of bread formed the daily requirements in
food of one expedition. In late Eamesside times
the food of an expedition of some 9000 men was
The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 23
carried on ten large carts, each drawn by six yoke
of oxen, while porters “innumerable” are said to
have been employed. The families of the workmen
generally lived on the spot, and these also
had to be fed—a fact which is indicated, too, by
an inscription which states that in one expedition
each miner required twenty loaves of bread per
diem.
Whenever this organisation broke down the
consequences must have been awful. In this
quarrying expedition in Ramesside times, consisting
of 9000 men, 10 per cent of them died
from one cause or another ; and later writers
speak of the “horrors” of the mines. In summer
the heat is intense in the desert, and the wells
could not always have supplied sufficient water.
The rocks are then so hot that they cannot be
touched by the bare hand, and one’s boots are
little protection to the feet. Standing in the sunlight,
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 white
lather upon the lips, and the eyes are blinded
with the moisture which has collected around
them ; and thus what the quarrymen and miners
must have suffered as they worked upon the
scorching stones no tongue can tell.
24 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
In ancient Egyptian times the camel was regarded
as a curious beast from a far country, and
was seldom, if ever, put to any use in Egypt.
Only three or four representations of it are now
known, and it never occurs amongst any of the
animals depicted upon the walls of the tombs,
although bears, elephants, giraffes, and other
foreign and rare creatures, are there shown. It
was an Asiatic animal, and was not introduced
into Egypt as an agent of transportation until
the days of the ubiquitous Romans. Donkeys,
oxen, and human beings were alone used in
Pharaonic days for transporting the necessities
of the labourers and the produce of their work ;
and probably the officials were carried to and fro
in sedan-chairs. Even in Roman days there is
nothing to show that the camel was very largely
employed, and one may not amuse oneself too
confidently with the picture of a centurion of
the Empire astride the hump of the rolling ship
of the desert.
Nowadays, of course, one travels entirely by
camel in the desert. For an expedition of fifteen
days or so one generally requires about a dozen
camels all told, and one or two guides. Some of
the animals carry the water in portable tanks
;
others are loaded with the tents and beds ; and
The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 25
others carry the boxes of tinned food and bottled
drinks. The whole caravan rattles and bumps as
it passes through the echoing valleys, and one’s
cook rises from amidst a clattering medley of
saucepans and kettles which are slung around
his saddle. The camels are obtained, at the rate
of two to three shillings per diem, from some
Shekh, who holds himself more or less responsible
for one’s safety. With a steady steed and a good
saddle there are few means of locomotion so enjoyable
as camel-riding. Once the art is learnt it is
never forgotten, and after the tortures of the first
day or so of the first expedition, one need never
again suffer from stiffness, though many months
may elapse between the journeys. This preliminary
suffering is due to one’s inability at the
outset to adjust the muscles to the peculiar
motion ; but the knowledge comes unconsciously
after a while and ever remains.
One jogs along at the rate of about four and
a half or five miles an hour, and some thirty miles
a- day is covered with ease. The baggage camels
travel at about three miles an hour. They start
first, are passed during the morning, catch one up
at the long rest for luncheon, are again passed
during the afternoon, and arrive about an hour
after the halt has been called. If possible, all
26 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
the camels drink every second day, but they are
quite capable of going strongly for three or four
days without water, and, when really necessary,
can travel for a week or more through a land
without wells.
While the Mines Department was in existence
experiments were tried with automobiles and
motor bicycles, which were by no means unsuccessful.
Many of the main roads in the Eastern
Desert pass over hard gravel, and a motor may
be driven with safety over the unprepared camel
tracks. If wells were sunk every ten or fifteen
miles, there would be no dangers to be feared from
a breakdown ; and under favourable circumstances
the journey from the Nile to the Red Sea might
be accomplished in a morning. In the future
one may picture the energetic tourist leaving
his Luxor or Cairo hotel, whirling over the open
plains where now one crawls, rushing through the
valleys in which the camel-rider lingers, penetrating
to the remote ruins and deserted workings,
and emerging breathless on to the golden coast of
the sea, to wave his handkerchief to his friends
upon the decks of the Indian liners.
The time must surely come when the owners
of automobiles in Egypt will sicken of the short
roads around Cairo, and will venture beyond the
The Eastern Desert and its Interests. 27
garden wall towards the rising sun. Whether it
will be that the re-working of the gold mines and
the quarries of ornamental stone will attract the
attention of these persons to this wonderful wilderness,
or that the enterprising automobilists will
pave the way for the miners and the quarrymen,
it is certain that some day the desert will blossom
with the rose once more, and the rocks reverberate
with the sound of many voices. Had I now in my
two open hands pearls, diamonds, and rubies, how
gladly would I give them—or some of them—for
the sight of the misty mountains of the Eastern
Desert, and for the feel of the sharp air of the
hills ! One looks forward with enthusiasm to the
next visit to these unknown regions, and one cannot
but feel that those who have it in their power
to travel there are missing much in remaining
within the walls of the little garden of the Nile.
One hears in imagination the camels grunting as
their saddles are adjusted ; one feels the tingle of
the morning air ; and one itches to be off again,
“over the hills and far away,” into the solitary
splendour of the desert.
II.
TO THE QUARRIES OF WADY HAMMAMAT.
The so-called Breccia Quarries of Wady Hammamat
are known to all Egyptologists by name,
owing to the important historical inscriptions
which 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 of
the locality is Wady Fowakhieh, ” the Valley of the
Pots ” ; but such niceties do not trouble the average
archaeologist. Many of the inscriptions were
copied by Lepsius, the late German Egyptologist,
and further notes were made by Golenischeff, a
Russian savant ; but except for these two persons
no Egyptologist has studied the quarries. They
have been seen, however, on a few occasions by
Europeans ; and, as the caravan road to Kossair
passes along the valley in which they are situated,
they are known to all the natives who have
crossed the desert at this point. In November
1907 I found it possible to visit this historic
To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 29
site, and I was fortunate enough to obtain the
companionship of three English friends who happened,
very opportunely, to be in search of mild
excitement at the time.
We set out from Luxor one morning in November,
our caravan consisting in all of twentythree
camels, nine of which were ridden by our
four selves, my servant, two guards, the Shekh of
the camelmen, and the guide, while fourteen were
loaded with the three tents, the baggage, and the
water-tanks, and were tended by a dozen camelmen
who made the journey mainly on foot. Our
road led eastwards from Luxor past the temple of
the goddess Mut at Karnak, reflected in its sacred
lake, and so along the highroad towards the rising
sun. The day was cool, and a strong invigorating
breeze raced past us, going in the same direction.
Before us, as we crossed the fields, the sunlit
desert lay stretched behind the soft green of the
tamarisks which border its edge. Away to the
right the three peaks of the limestone hills, which
form the characteristic background of Thebes, rose
into the sunlight ; and to the left one could discern
the distant ranges behind which we were to
penetrate.
On reaching the desert we turned off northwards
towards these hills, skirting the edge of the
30 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
cultivated land until we should pick up the ancient
road which leaves the Nile valley some twenty
miles north of Luxor. After luncheon and a rest
in the shade of the rustling tamarisks the ride was
continued, and we did not again dismount until, in
the mid-afternoon, the Coptic monastery which is
situated behind the town of Qus, and which marks
the beginning of the road to the Red Sea, was
reached ; and here the camp was pitched. The
quiet five-hours’ ride of about twenty miles had
sufficed to produce healthy appetites in the party,
and, when the sun went down and the air turned
cold, we were glad to attack an early dinner in
the warmth of the mess-tent—one of the camelboxes
serving as a table, and the four saddles
taking the place of chairs.
The next morning we set out soon after sunrise,
and rode eastwards into the desert, which here
stretched out before us in a blaze of sunlight. The
road passed over the open gravel and sand in a
series of parallel tracks beaten hard by the pads of
generations of camels. Gebel el Gorn, ” the Hill
of the Horn,” was passed before noon ; and, mounting
a ridge, we saw the wide plain across which
we were to travel, intersected by a dry river-bed
marked for its whole length by low bushes. Unable
to find shade, and these bushes being still
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.

r cJJ_ ^V
fTIB€PIOYKAAYAlL QC fL. Jj r^ /7N
KTOKPATOPOCnANITl r~ ‘ |JT „ U 4.
\N60CnPOCTATHC ‘,, ^ T ^ . i b | 12
Pl. iv.

To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 31
some distance ahead, we lunched in the open sunlight
at a spot where the wind, sweeping over the
ridge, brought us all the coolness which we could
desire.
We were now on the great mediaeval highway
from Qus to Kossair, by which the Arabian and
Indian trade with Egypt was once conducted.
The quarries of Hammamat lie on the main road to
the sea. Nowadays the road starts from Keneh
;
in ancient times it started from Koptos, now called
Quft, about ten miles south of Keneh ; and in
mediaeval days it started from Qus, about ten
miles south of Quft again. The roads from these
different places join at the little oasis of Lageta,
which lies some four-and-twenty miles back from
the Nile valley.
Riding into Lageta in mid-afternoon the scene
was one of great charm. The flat desert stretched
around us in a haze of heat. In the far distance
ahead the mountains of Hammamat could be seen,
blue, misty, and indistinct. The little oasis, with
its isolated groups of tamarisks, its four or five tall
palms, its few acacias, and its one little crop of
corn, formed a welcome patch of green amidst the
barren wilderness ; and the eyes, aching from the
glare around, turned with gratitude towards the
soft shadows of the trees. A large, and probably
32 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
ancient, well of brackish water forms the nucleus
around which the few poor huts cluster ; and two
or three shadufs, or water-hoists, are to be seen
here and there. A ruined, many-domed building
which may have been a caravanserai, or perhaps a
Coptic monastery, stands picturesquely under a
spreading acacia ; and near it we found the fragment
of a Greek inscription in which, like a light
emerging momentarily from the darkness of the
past, the name of the Emperor Tiberius Claudius
was to be seen. The few villagers idly watched us
as we dismounted and walked through the settlement,
too bathed in the languor of their monotonous
life 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 our
tea, the only living thing which took any stock of
us and our doings was a small green willow-wren
in search of a crumb of food.
The camp was pitched to the east of the oasis,
and at dawn we continued our way. The temperature
was not more than 38° Fahrenheit when
the sun rose, and we were constrained to break
into a hard trot in order to keep warm. Two
desert martins circled about us as we went, now
passing under the camels’ necks, and now whirling
overhead ; while more than once we put up a few
To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 33
cream-coloured coursers, who went off with a whirr
into the space around. After a couple of hours’
riding over the open, hard-surfaced desert, we
topped a low ridge and came into view of a ruined
Roman station, called in ancient times the Hydreuma,
and now known as Kasr el Benat, “the
Castle of the Maidens.” The building stands in a
level plain around which the low hills rise, and to
the east the distant Hammamat mountains form a
dark background. From the outside one sees a
well-made rectangular wall, and entering the doorway
on the north side one passes into an enclosure
surrounded by a series of small chambers, the
roofs of which have now fallen in. In these little
rooms the weary Roman officers and the caravan
masters rested themselves as they passed to and
fro between the quarries and the Nile ; and in this
courtyard, when haply the nights were warm, they
sang their songs to the stars and dreamed their
dreams of Rome. The building is so little ruined
that one may picture it as it then was without
any difficulty ; and such is the kindness of Time
that one peoples the place with great men and
good, intent on their work and happy in their
exile, rather than with that riff-raff which so often
found its way to these outlying posts.
Across the plain, opposite the entrance to the
c
34 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
Hydreuma, there is a large isolated rock with
cliff-like sides, upon which one finds all manner of
inscriptions and rough drawings. Here there are
two Sinaitic inscriptions of rare value and several
curious signs in an unknown script, while Ababdeh
marks and Arabic letters are conspicuous.
We mounted our camels again at about eleven
o’clock, and rode towards the wall of the Medik es-
Salam hills ahead, passing into their shadows soon
after noonday. We halted for luncheon in the
shade of a group of rocks, and our meal was enlivened
by the presence of two butterflies which
seemed out of place in the barren Egypt desert safari and yet
in harmony with the breezy, light-hearted spirit of
the place. Early in the afternoon we rode on, but
an hour had not passed when some obvious inscriptions
on the rocks to the left of the track,
opposite a point where the road bends sharply to
the right, attracted my attention. These proved
to date from the Middle Empire, about B.C. 2000,
and no doubt marked a camp of that date. The
names of various officials were given, and a prayer
or two to the gods was to be read. Rounding the
corner, we had no sooner settled ourselves to the
camels’ trot than another group of inscriptions on
the rocks to the right of the path necessitated a
further halt. Here there were two very important
To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 35
graffiti of the time of Akbnaton ; and considerable
light is thrown by one of them upon the fascinating
period of the religious revolution of that king.
One sees three cartouches, of which the first is
that of Queen Thiy, the second reads Amonhotep
(IV.), and the third seems to have given the
name Akhnaton ; but both this cartouche and that
of Thiy are erased. The three cartouches are
placed together above the symbols of sovereignty,
and below the rays of the sun’s disk, thus showing
that Akhnaton was but a boy of tender years
under his mothers guidance when he first came
to the throne, and that the Aton worship had
already begun. It would be too long a matter
to explain the significance of this inscription
here, but those who are of an inquiring mind
may turn to the article on this subject in the
October number of ‘ Blackwood’s Magazine ‘ for
1907, where I have described how the recently
found mummy of Akhnaton proved to be that
of a very young man.
The shadows were lengthening when we once
more mounted and trotted up the valley, which
presently led into more open ground ; but after
half an hour’s ride a second Eoman station came
into sight, and again the grumbling camels had to
kneel. The building is much ruined, and is not of
36 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
great interest to those who have already seen the
Hydreuma and other stations. As we continued
the journey the sun set behind us, and in the
growing moonlight the valley looked ghostly and
wonderfully beautiful. The shapes of the rocks
became indistinct, and one was hardly aware when
the well known as Bir Hammamat was at last
reached. This well lies in a flat, gravelly amphitheatre
amidst the rugged hills, which press in on
all sides. It is in all about six hours’ ride
—
i.e.,
twenty-eight or thirty miles—from Lageta ; but
our several halts had spread the journey over
twice that length of time. The well is circular
and fairly large, and stones dropped into its pitchdark
depths seemed a long time in striking the
water. A subterranean stairway, restored in
recent years by a mining company, runs down atone
side to the water’s level ; and at its doorway
in the moonlight we sat and smoked until the
baggage camels came up.
The next morning we rode up a valley which
was now tortuous and narrow. This is the Wady
Hammamat of the archaeologist, and the Wady
Fowakhieh of the natives. Dark, threatening
hills towered on either side, as though eager to
prison for ever the deeds once enacted at their
feet. One’s voice echoed amongst the rocks, and
Under the tamarisks of the oasis of Lag-eta.—Page 3
Rir Hammamat, looking- south.—Page 36.
Pl. V

To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 37
the wind carried the sound down the valley and
round the bend, adding to it its own quiet whispers.
A ride of about half an hour’s length brought
us to some ruined huts where the ancient quarrynien
had lived in the days of the Pharaohs. From
this point onwards for perhaps a mile the rocks
on either side are dotted with inscriptions, from
which a part of the history of the valley may
be learnt. The place is full of whispers. As the
breeze blows round the rocks and up the silent
water -courses it is as though the voices of men
long since forgotten were drifting uncertainly by.
One feels as though the rocks were peopled with
insistent entities, all muttering the tales of long
ago. Behind this great rock there is something
laughing quietly to itself; up this dry waterfall
there is a sort of whimpering ; and here in this
silent recess one might swear that the word to be
silent had been passed around. It is only the
wind and the effect of the contrast between the
exposed and the still places sheltered by the
rocks ; but, with such a history as is writ upon
its walls, one might believe the valley to be
crowded with the ghosts of those who have
suffered or triumphed in it.
Wady Fowakhieh extends from the Bir Hammamat
to the well known as Bir Fowakhieh, which
38 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
lies in the open circus at the east end of the
valley. Although the tuff quarried here is of
a blue or olive-green colour, the surface of the
rocks, except where they are broken, is a sort
of chocolate-brown. One thus obtains an extraordinary
combination of browns and blues, which
with the flush of the sunset and the dim purple
of the distant hill -tops forms a harmony as
beautiful as any the world knows. The flat,
gravel bed of the valley is from fifty to a hundred
yards wide, and along this level surface run
numerous camel-tracks, more or less parallel with
one another. Besides the inscriptions there are
other traces of ancient work : an unfinished shrine,
and a sarcophagus, abandoned owing to its having
cracked, are to be seen where the workmen of
some five -and -twenty centuries ago left them
;
and here and there a group of ruined huts is to
be observed.
Amidst these relics of the old world our tents
were pitched, having been removed from Bir
Hammamat as soon as breakfast had been
finished ; and with camera, note-book, and sketching
apparatus, the four of us dispersed in different
directions, my own objective, of course, being the
inscriptions. The history of Wady Fowakhieh
begins when the history of Egypt begins, and one
To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 39
must look back into the dim uncertainties of the
archaic period for the first evidences of the working
of the quarries in this valley. Many beautifully
made bowls and other objects of this tuff
are found in the graves of Dynasty I., fifty-five
centuries ago ; and my friends and I, scrambling
over the rocks, were fortunate enough to find in a
little wady leading northwards from the main
valley a large rock – drawing and inscription of
this date. A ” vase-maker ” here offers a prayer
to the sacred barque of the hawk -god Horus,
which is drawn so clearly that one may see the
hawk standing upon its shrine in the boat, an
upright spear set before the door ; and one may
observe the bull’s head, so often found in primitive
countries, affixed to the prow ; while the barque
itself is shown to be standing upon a sledge in
order that it might be dragged over the ground.
In Dynasties II. to IV. the objects in the
museums show that the quarries were extensively
worked, and in Dynasty V. one has the testimony
of local inscriptions as well. An official under
King Asesa, B.C. 2675, has left his name on the
rocks on the south of the valley ; and the name
of 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
40 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
information. Scanning the rocks one reads of
chief architects, master builders, assistant artisans,
scribes, treasurers, ship-captains, and their families
stationed at the quarries to procure stone for the
ornamentation of the pyramid buildings of the
king, which are still to be seen at Sakkara, near
Cairo ; and these inscriptions mention a certain
Thethi, who was the ” master pyramid-builder of
the king,” and therefore was probably in charge
of the expedition.
In the reign of Aty, B.C. 2400, a ships captain
named Apa came to procure stone for his master’s
pyramid ; and with him were 200 soldiers and 200
workmen. King Imhotep, B.C. 2400, sent his son
Zaty with 1000 labourers, 100 quarrymen, and
1200 soldiers, to obtain stone ; and he supplied
200 donkeys and 50 oxen daily for its transport.
But the first really interesting inscription on the
rocks of the valley dates from Dynasty XL, B.C.
2050. Here an all too brief story is told by a
great official named Henu, recording an expedition
made by him to the distant land of Pount in
the eighth year of the reign of Menthuhotep III.
The king had ordered Henu to despatch a ship
to Pount in order to bring fresh myrrh from that
land of spices, and he had therefore collected an
army of 3000 men. He set out from Koptos,
Cartouches of Sety II. on the rocks between Rir Hammamat
and Wady Fowakhieh.
s/4^
m/f
Inscriptions on the rocks between Bir Hammamat and Wady Fowakhieh.
Pl. vi.

To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 41
travelled over the open desert to the little oasis of
Lageta, and so struck the road which we had
followed. He seems to have had much consideration
for his men, for he says, ” I made the road
a river, and the desert a stretch of field. I gave
a leather bottle, a carrying pole, two jars of water,
and twenty loaves of bread to each one of the men
every day.” When one considers that this means
60,000 loaves of bread per day, one’s respect for
the organising powers of the ancient Egyptians
must be considerable. At Wady Fowakhieh he
seems to have organised some quarry works for
the king, and presently he pushed on towards the
Bed Sea, digging wells as he went. The expedition,
which will be recorded later, is then described
; and Henu states that, on his return
to Wady Fowakhieh, he organised the transport
of some five blocks of stone which were to be used
for making statues.
In the second year of the reign of Menthuhotep
IV., B.C. 2000,—so runs another long rock
inscription,—the Vizier Amonemhat was sent to
the quarries with an expedition of 10,000 men,
consisting of miners, artificers, quarrymen, artists,
draughtsmen, stone – cutters, gold – workers, and
officials. His orders were to procure ” an august
block of the pure costly stone which is in this
42 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
mountain, for a sarcophagus, an eternal memorial,
and for monuments in the temples.” The presence
of gold – workers indicates that the gold mines
near Bir Fowakhieh were also opened. Ancient
workings are still to be seen near this well, and
in recent times an attempt was made to reopen
them, which, however, was not very successful.
One must imagine this expedition as camping at
that well—Bir Hammamat—where we had camped
on the previous night, and as passing up the
valley each day to and from the quarries. This
was a tedious walk, and a nearer water-supply
must have been much needed. One day there
was a heavy fall of rain, which must have lasted
several hours, for when it had ceased the sandy
plain at the head of the valley was found to be a
veritable lake of water. Bain is not at all a
common occurrence in Upper Egypt. Even now
the peasants are peculiarly alarmed at a heavy
downpour ; and in those far-off days the quarrymen
were ready enough to see in the phenomenon
a direct act of the great god Min, the patron of the
desert. “Bain was made,” says the inscription,
“and the form of this god appeared in it; his
glory was shown to men. The highland was made
a lake, the water extending to the margin of the
rocks.” The presence of the water seems to have
To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 43
dislodged an accumulation of sand which had
formed over an ancient and disused well ; and
when the lake subsided the astonished labourers
discovered its mouth, ten cubits in length on its
every side. ” Soldiers of old and kings who had
lived aforetime went out and returned by its side ;
yet no eye had seen it.” It was ” undefiled, and
had been kept pure and clean from the gazelle,
and concealed from the Bedwin.” If this well
is, as I suppose, the Bir Fowakhieh, it must have
been a great boon to the workmen, for it is but
a few minutes’ walk from the quarries, and must
have saved them that weary tramp down to the
Bir Hammamat at the end of their hard day’s
work.
When the great stone for the lid of the sarcophagus
had been prised out of the hillside, and
had been toppled into the valley, another wonder
occurred. Down the track there came running
” a gazelle great with young, going towards the
people before her, while her eyes looked backward,
though she did not turn back.” The quarrymen
must have ceased their work to watch her as she
ran along the hard valley, looking back with
startled eyes as the shouts of the men assailed
her. At last ” she arrived at this block intended
for the lid of the sarcophagus, it being still in its
44 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
place ; and upon it she dropped her young, while
the whole army of the king watched her.” One
can hear the quarrymen, as they clattered into
the valley, shouting, ” A miracle, a miracle !
” and
surrounded the incapacitated creature. The end
of the tale is told briefly. ” Then they cut her
throat upon the block, and brought fire. The
block descended to the Nile in safety.”
Another inscription states that this sarcophagus
lid was dragged down to the river by an army
of 3000 sailors from the Delta, and that
sacrifices of cattle, goats, and incense were constantly
made in order to lighten the labour. It
must have been an enormous block to drag along ;
for even after it was dressed into the required
shape and size by the masons in Egypt, it was
some 14 feet in length, 7 feet in width, and 3J feet
in thickness. Two other blocks brought down
from these quarries at about the same date are
said to have been 17 feet in length, while a third
was about 20 feet long.
In the reign of Amonemhat I. of Dynasty XII.,
B.C. 2000, an officer named Antef was sent to the
quarries to procure a special kind of stone, so rare
that ” there was no hunter who knew the marvel
of it, and none that sought it had found it.” ” I
spent eight days,” says Antef, ” searching the hills
To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 45
for it, but I knew not the place wherein it might
be. I prostrated myself before Min, before Mut,
before the goddess great in magic, and before all
the gods of the highlands, burning incense to them
upon the fire.” At last, after almost giving up the
search in despair, he found the required block one
morning just as the sun had topped the dark hills
of the valley, and while his men were just scattering
in all directions to renew the search. Although
so many centuries have passed since Antef found
his stone, one feels, when one reads this inscription
upon the rocks, that it was but yesterday
;
and one may picture the sunlit scene when, as he
says, ” the company were in festivity and the
entire army was praising, rejoicing, and doing
obeisance.”
Under other kings of this dynasty one reads, as
one walks up the valley, of works being carried on.
One man quarried and carried down to the river
ten blocks which were later converted into seated
statues 8j feet high. Another official speaks of
his army of 2000 men which he had with
him in this now desolate place ; and a third has
left an inscription reading, ” I came to these highlands
with my army in safety, by the power of
Min, the Lord of the Highlands.”
So the work continued from generation to
46 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
generation, and the quarryinen, as they sat at
noon to rest themselves in the shade, could read
around them the names of dead kings and forgotten
officials carved upon the rocks, and could
place their own names in the illustrious company.
The troubled years of the Hyksos rule checked the
quarrying somewhat ; but in Dynasty XVIII. the
labours were renewed, though unfortunately no
long inscriptions have been left to illuminate the
darkness of the history of the valley. An inscription
of the time of Akhnaton is to be seen high up
on the rocks, but other figures have been cut over
it by Sety I.
Various kings of Dynasties XIX. and XX. are
mentioned on the rocks ; but the only important
inscription dates from the second year of the reign
of Rameses IV., B.C. 1165. It seems that this
king, with a degree of energy unusual in a Pharaoh
of this debased period, made a personal visit to the
quarries. ” He led the way to the place he desired ;
he went around the august mountain ; he cut an
inscription upon this mountain engraved with the
great name of the king.” This inscription is to be
seen on the rocks of the valley, almost as fresh as
when the scribes had written it. On his return to
Egypt he organised an expedition for the purpose
of quarrying the stone he had selected. A com1.
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.

tSf^TMfi?/*. rj: ^L
/ &
S. tf^s+s *<&?
— «ftsrU2+
IS *?l
^i^^>^^°0^
fnSW-flffiSP -^
^omu
Pl. vii.

To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 47
plete list of the personnel of the expedition is
recorded, and, as it gives one an idea of the
usual composition of a force of this kind, I may
be permitted to give it in some detail.
The head of the expedition was none other than
the High Priest of Amon, and his immediate staff
consisted of the king’s butlers, the deputy of the
army and his secretary, the overseer of the treasury,
two directors of the quarry service, the court
charioteer, and the clerk of the army lists. Twenty
clerks of the army, or of the War Office as we would
say, and twenty inspectors of the court stables
were attached to this group. Under a military
commandant there were 20 infantry officers and
5000 men, 50 charioteers, 200 sailors, and a mixed
body of 50 priests, scribes, overseers, and veterinary
inspectors. Under a chief artificer and three
master quarrymen there were 130 stone-cutters
and quarrymen ; while the main work was done by
2000 crown slaves and 800 foreign captives. Two
draughtsmen and four sculptors were employed for
engraving the inscriptions, &c. A civil magistrate
with 50 police kept order amongst this large force,
which altogether totalled 8362 men, not including,
as the inscription grimly states, the 900 souls
who perished from fatigue, hunger, disease, or
exposure.
48 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
The supplies for this large expedition were
transported in ten carts each drawn by six yoke
of oxen ; and there were many porters laden with
bread, meat, and various kinds of cakes. The
inscription then tells us of the sacrifices which
were continuously made to the gods of the desert.
” There were brought from Thebes the oblations
for the satisfaction of the gods of heaven and
earth. Bulls were slaughtered, calves were smitten,
incense streamed to heaven, shedeh and wine was
like a flood, beer flowed in this place. The voice
of the ritual-priest presented these pure offerings
to all the gods of the mountains so that their
hearts were glad.”
In this remote desert how easy it is to dream
oneself back in the elder days ! The valley,
pressed close on either side by the rocks around
which the whispers for ever wander, echoes once
again with the ring of the chisels ; and in the wind
that almost ceaselessly rushes over the ancient
tracks, one can see the fluttering garments of the
quarrymen as they pass to and from their work.
As we sat at the door of our tents in the cool of
the afternoon, the present day seemed now as
remote as the past had seemed before ; and, when
that great moment of sunset was approached, one
almost felt it fitting to burn a pan of incense to
To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 49
the old gods of heaven and earth, as the officers of
Rameses IY. had done.
The names of later kings, Shabaka, Taharka,
Psametik, Nekau, Aahmes II. , and others, look
down at one from the rocks ; and sometimes the
date is precisely given, and the names of the
officials are mentioned. During the Persian period
the green tuff was in considerable demand for the
making of those lifelike portrait statuettes so
many of which are to be seen in the various
museums ; and the coarser tuff, which is practically
breccia, was much used for shrines and sarcophagi.
It is curious to see in this distant valley the
names of the Persian kings, Cambyses, Darius I.,
Xerxes I., and Artaxerxes L, written in Egyptian
hieroglyphs in the rock inscriptions, together with
the year of their reigns in which the quarrying
was undertaken. Nectanebo I. and II., B.C. 370
and B.C. 350, have left their names in the valley;
and dating from this and the subsequent periods
there are various Egyptian and Greek inscriptions.
In the reign of Ptolemy III., B.C. 240, a little
temple was built near the Bir Fowakhieh at the
east end of the valley of the quarries. Wandering
over this amphitheatre amidst the hills we came
upon the remains of the little building, which had
D
50 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
been constructed of rough stones augmented by
well-made basalt columns. It was dedicated to
the god Min, the patron of the Eastern Desert
;
but as it was only about 12 feet by 22 in area the
priests of the god could not have commanded the
devotion of more than a few of the quarrymen.
Near the temple there are three or four groups of
ruined huts, nestling on the hillsides amongst the
rocks ; and here the quarrymen of the Ptolemaic
and Grseco – Roman ages dwelt, as the broken
pottery indicates. There are many traces of
ancient gold workings near by, and a ruined house
of modern construction stands as a sad memorial
of the unsuccessful attempt to reopen them. In
the inscriptions of Dynasties XVIII. -XX. one
reads of ” the gold of Koptos,” which must be the
gold brought into Koptos from this neighbourhood
; and at this later period the mines appear
to have been worked. A very fine pink granite
began to be quarried just to the east of this well
in Roman days, and one may still see many blocks
cut from the hillside which have lain there these
two thousand years awaiting transport.
In Wady Fowakhieh itself there are many
blocks of tuff, addressed to the Caesars, but never
dispatched to them ; nor is there anything in this
time -forsaken valley which so brings the past
The camp in Wadi Fowakhieh, looking- down from
the hills on the north side. The camel tracks
are seen passing- along the valley.—Page 38.
Wady Fowakhieh, looking east. The camel tracks will be noticed again.
Pl. viii.
To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 51
before one as do these blocks awaiting removal to
vanished cities. There are many Greek inscriptions
to be seen, the majority being grouped together
in a recess amidst the rocks on the south
side of the valley. Here one reads of persons wbo
worked for Tiberius, Nero, Domitian, and other
emperors ; and there are their drawings of men,
animals, and boats before one, as fresh as when an
hour at noon was whiled away in their making.
From these the last days of the quarrying dates a
causeway which passes up the hillside on the south
of the valley, and which was intended to ease the
descent of blocks quarried higher up. The Romans
have also left watch-towers on the hill- tops, which
indicate that peace did not always reign in the
desert.
The night which closed in on us all too soon
brought with it the silence of the very grave.
The wind fell, and the whisperings almost ceased.
The young moon which lit the valley seemed to
turn all things to stone under its gaze ; and not a
sound fell from the camelmen or from the camels.
The evening meal having been eaten and the pipes
smoked, we quietly slipped into our beds ; and
when the moon had set behind the hills and absolute
darkness had fallen upon the valley, one
might have believed oneself as dead and as deep
52 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
in the underworld as the kings whose names were
inscribed upon the black rocks around.
On the following morning we continued our
journey eastwards towards the Red Sea, along
the old trade route. This expedition forms a
subject which will be treated by itself in the next
chapter, and therefore one may here pass over the
week occupied by the journey, and may resume
the thread of the present narrative at the date
when we set out from Wady Fowakhieh on our
homeward way. The day was already hot as we
trotted down the valley and past the Bir Hammamat,
where, by the way, we put up another family
of cream-coloured coursers. A couple of hours’
trotting brought us to a cluster of sandstone rocks
on the north of the now open and wide road, these
having been passed in the dusk on the outward
journey. Here I found one or two inscriptions in
unknown letters, a few Egyptian graffiti, and a
little Graeco-Roman shrine dedicated to the great
god Min. On these rocks we ate our luncheon,
and rested in the shade ; and in the early afternoon
we mounted once more, passing the second
Roman station half an hour later. A ride of two
and a half hours brought us to the Hydreuma
about sunset, and here we halted to smoke a pipe
and stretch our legs. Then in the moonlight we
To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 53
rode on once more over the open desert, which
stretched in hazy uncertainty as far as the eye
could see. The oasis of Lageta was reached at
about seven o’clock, and, the night having turned
cold, we were glad to find the camp fires already
brightly burning and the kettle merrily boiling.
We were on the road again soon after sunrise,
and, riding towards Koptos, about ten or twelve
miles from Lagdta we passed another Roman enclosure
now almost entirely destroyed. Our route
now lay to the north of the hills of el Gorn, the
south side of which we had seen on our outward
journey ; and after three and a half hours’ riding
we came into sight of the distant Nile valley.
The thin line of green trees seemed in the mirage
to be swimming in water, as though the period of
the inundation were upon us again. At the point
where this view is first obtained there are some
low hills on the south side of the tracks, and in
one of these there is a small red-ochre quarry.
The sandstone is veined with ochre, and the
quarry had been opened for the purpose of obtaining
this material for the making of red paint
;
but whether the few red markings on the rocks
are ancient or mediaeval one cannot say. Here
we ate an early luncheon, and about noon we rode
on over the sun-bathed plain down to the cultiva54
Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
tion. Leaving the desert our road passed between
the fields towards the Nile ; and by two o’clock we
reached the picturesque village of Quft, which
marks the site of the ancient Koptos. We spent
the afternoon in wandering over the ruins of the
once famous caravanserai, and in the evening we
took the train back to Luxor.
Such are the quarries of Hammamat, and such
is the road to them. It is a simple journey, and
one able to be undertaken by any active person
who will take the trouble to order a few camels
from Keneh. There will come a time when one
will travel to the quarries by automobile, for even
the present road is hard-surfaced enough to permit
of that form of locomotion, and with a little doctoring
it will be not far from perfection. A place such
as this wonderful valley, with its whispers and its
echoes, seems to beckon to the curious to come, if
only to be lost for awhile in the soothing solitudes
and moved by the majestic beauty of the hills.
To those interested in the olden days the rocks
hold out an invitation which one is surprised to
find so seldom responded to ; but let any one feel
for an hour the fine freedom of the desert, and see
for an hour the fantasy of the hills, and that
invitation will not again be so lightly set aside.
Abandoned sarcophagus on the hillside in Wady Fowakhieh.—Page 38.
‘ /ft
«m if
:
A typical valley near Wady Fowakhieh
Pl. ix.

To the Quarries of Wady Hammamat. 55
On camel or automobile he will make his way
over the ancient tracks to the dark valley of the
quarries ; and there he will remain entranced, just
as we, until the business of life calls him back to

am
CTV €
PI
M
nAC^KAIC^ POC a enkcpKMCAPoc
r>

The Red Sea Highroad. 61
harbour, however, was so poor that a new port
and town was constructed some five miles to the
north, where a natural bay was easily able to be
improved into a very fair harbour. This new town
was named Philoteras, in honour of the sister of
Ptolemy Philadelphos (b.c. 285), while the older
port was now known as Aennum by foreigners,
though to the Egyptians both towns were called
Duau. I was fortunate enough to find some blocks
of a Ptolemaic temple at the older Kossair, and on
one of them was the name Duau, followed by the
hieroglyph representing a town written twice to
indicate the existence of the two ports. Not infrequently
one finds at Koptos and elsewhere short
inscriptions of this period relating to journeys
made along this route to Kossair, and thence
over the high seas. One example may here
be quoted : “To the most high goddess Isis, for
a fair voyage for the ship Serapis, Hermaeus
dedicates this.”
I must be permitted to give in full a very interesting
tariff of taxes imposed on persons using the
road during the Roman occupation, which was
found in a ruined guard-house just behind Koptos,
at the beginning of the highway. It reads as
follows :
—
62 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
By Order of the Governor of Egypt.—The dues which
the lessees of the transport service in Koptos, subject
to the Arabian command, are authorised to levy by
the customary scale, are inscribed on this tablet at the
instance of L. Antistius Asiaticus, Prefect of the Eed
Sea 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’s mast . . .
yard
The ninth year of the Emperor Csesar Domitian Augustus
Germanicus 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 levied
were such as one might expect to have passed
between the Nile and the sea ; and only those
items concerning women seem to call for explana-
. drachmas
The Red Sea Highroad. 63
tion. The very large tax imposed upon prostitutes
must indicate that Indian or Arabian females
coming into Egypt along this route, and liable
to bring with them the evils of the East, could
only be admitted when they were of the richest
and, consequently, best and highest class. Such
women were always taxed in the Roman Empire,
and in this regard a rather humorous story is told
in Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana.
That holy man was accosted by a tax-collector
when about to cross the Euphrates, and was asked
his wares. He replied with the somewhat banal
remark that he had with him Soj^hrosune kai
Dikaiosiine kai ‘Andreia—” Temperance, Righteousness,
and Courage.” The official at once
assessed these as Doittas, ” Female slaves,” and
would have taxed them as prostitutes, had not
the prophet hastily corrected him by saying that
they were not Doiilas but Despoinas, “Ladies
of the House”! The “wives of soldiers” mentioned
in the tariff shows that Mommsen was
right in stating that the rule of the emperors
was laxer in Egypt than elsewhere, for before
the time of Severus it was not possible for
legionaries to contract legal marriages while on
active service ; but in Egypt the marriages were
so far recognised that the wives could be taxed
64 Travels in Upper Egypt desert safari .
as such, and the children could be enrolled as
legionaries.
During mediaeval times this Bed Sea highroad
was much used by traders, but its river terminus
was now removed from Koptos to Kus, a town
a few miles farther up-stream, which soon became
second only to Cairo in size and wealth. A
pottery figure of Buddha, some mediaeval Chinese
vases, and a few Arabian antiquities, found in
Upper Egypt, are records of the use of this route
at that time. In later days the terminus again
shifted to Keneh, a few miles to the north of
Koptos, and to that town there still come Arabian
traders from across the Red Sea, and pilgrims
sometimes use it as the base of the journey to
Mecca.
From Wady Fowakhleh our party set out along
this highroad at about 7 a.m. on a bracing
morning in November. From Bir Fowakhieh the
road branched off to the right along a fine valley,
shut in by hills fantastic in shape and colour.
Clustering on either side of the path for some
distance there were groups of huts, and in the
hillsides there were traces of gold mines long since
abandoned. The road beneath one was hard, flat,
and blue-grey in colour, as though some mighty
torrent had brought down masses of gravel and
The Red Sea Highroad. 65
had laid it level over the bottom of the valley.
Gradually it sloped upwards, and as the hills drew
in on either side one felt that the highest point
of the whole road was soon to be reached. We
were already half-way between the Nile and the
sea, and so far there had been a continuous slope
upwards, so gradual as to be almost imperceptible.
The valley now twisted and turned narrowly between
the dark hills, and the gravel bed became
humped and banked up where the early waters had
raced down some narrow gauge and had churned
themselves through a natural basin into the wide
bed beyond. The cold wind beat in our faces as
we trotted up the narrowing valley, and the sun
had not yet gained much power when, after a ride
of two hours, we reached the rugged pass which
forms the apex of the route.
The scenery here is superb. The pathway, such
as it is, threads its way through a cluster of great
grey boulders tumbled into the few yards’ width
between the rocks of the hillside, so that on foot
one may jump from stone to stone up the whole
length of the pass, and on camelback one has to
twist and turn, rise and descend, until the saddlestraps
come near to bursting. Amidst the rocks
there is a well, known as Bir es Sid, which may
have been opened in ancient times, perhaps by the
E
66 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
redoubtable Henu. A few natives were encamped
near by, and not far away their goats were to be
seen in the charge of a small girl, whose dark dress
fluttering in the wind caught one’s eye amidst
the pale grey of rocks and the cold blue of the
shadows.
Riding on for another two hours we reached an
open ridge from which an extraordinary prospect of
rolling hills and innumerable humps was obtained.
On the left of the pathway there was a hill at the
top of which stood a ruined Roman watch-tower,
one of a chain of such posts which crowned the
higher peaks all along the route. Up this hill
we scrambled on foot, and climbed the tower at
the summit, burning a pipeful of tobacco to the
gods of Contentment thereon. The array of hills
around us, as closely packed and yet as individual
as the heads of a vast crowd of people, were of
a wonderful hue in the morning light. Those
to the north were a dead grey, those to the east
were pink and mauve, and those to the south
every shade of rich brown, while the shadows
throughout were of the deepest blue. The wind
tore past us as we sat contemplating the fair world
at our feet, and two black ravens sailed by on it to
take stock of us. Far below the path wound its
way through the humps ; and in the distance the
Bir es Sid, the well at the highest point of the Red Sea highroad.—Page 65.
T^m&teK
*7».
11^
The Roman fortress of Abu Zerah, looking south-east.—Page 67.
Pl. xi.

The Red Sea Highroad. 67
peaks and spires of the darker rocks into which
it penetrated bounded the scene, and hid the sea
from view.
Mounting the camels once more we denied
down the steep path, and for a time were lost
amidst the hills. We lunched an hour later in
more open country ; and riding on afterwards for
somewhat over two hours we reached the B,oman
station of Abu Zerah, which lies in the plain at
the foot of a range of fine purple hills. As is
usual in these buildings, the station consists of a
rectangular enclosure, the wall being still some
twelve feet in height in parts. The door-posts of
the main entrance are made of sandstone, and
upon one of them is the almost obliterated Latin
inscription : SER . . . INY. . . . There are
several rooms inside the enclosure, built against
the wall, a space being left open in the middle.
Just to the north there are a few graves, around
which some broken pottery of Roman date lies
scattered.
A ride of less than an hour brought us to
another Roman station known as Hosh el Homra,
” the Red Enclosure,” where we only halted for a
moment or so in order to ascertain that there was
no unique feature in this building. In the afternoon
light the scene was of great beauty. Range
68 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
upon range of hills surrounded us, which assumed
a thousand varying colours : pink, rose, purple,
blue, and olive-green in the foreground. Spires of
rock shot up to a soft sky in which floated the
already visible moon, and overhead seven black
ravens soared past upon the wind. Soon the sun
went down, and, resting in the lee of a group of
dark rocks, we watched the pageant of colours
go by and waited for the baggage camels to
come up.
The journey was resumed at an early hour next
morning, and after a trot of about three-quarters
of an hour we reached the well and Roman station
of Hagi Suliman. The ancient well, lying within
the enclosing wall, has been restored in modern
times, and upon a tablet let into the wall is rudely
written: “Briggs, Hancock, and “Wood, 1832.
“
At this point the road is joined by another from
the north-west, along which we made our return
journey to Bir Fowakhieh by way of Wady el Esh
and Wady Adolla. From Bir Hagi Suliman to
Bir Fowakhieh by this route is a trot of about six
hours. The morning was bitterly cold, and the
wind swinging up the valley chilled one to the
bone. The tracks led now this way and now that,
around sharp corners where the wind buffeted one
suddenly, across patches of sunlight where there
The Red Sea Highroad. 69
was some hope of warmth, and then again up
shaded valleys where one might see an occasional
wagtail or sand-martin puffing its feathers
out against the cold airs. A trot of two and a
half hours brought us to yet another Roman ruin,
called El Litemah. Here there is as usual an
enclosing wall surrounding an area in which several
chambers are built and a well is dug. The doorposts
of the entrance are made of sandstone, and
some Cufic inscriptions are written upon one of
these by travellers in the middle ages. As we
entered the building a number of sand-grouse rose
from the midst of the ruins and went off to the
north, their swift flight being visible for some time
against a background of pale limestone hills, which
told of our approach to the sea. Near here we
passed a party of Arabian traders, some riding
camels and others walking. A more evil-looking
set of men I have seldom seen, and as they eyed
us and whispered together one felt that some mischief
was afoot. It was therefore not surprising
to learn when we returned to the Nile that a
caravan had been attacked with considerable
bloodshed at about that place and time, by
Arabians answering to this description.
An hour and quarter later we emerged from the
hills into an open plain in which the well known
70 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
as Bir el Ingliz is situated. This well was dug by
English troops at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, during operations against Napoleon’s
generals, of which further mention will be made.
A few Ababdeh natives were here encamped, and
hastened to draw water for our thirsty camels,
begging a cigarette as a reward for the labour.
In the shade of some rocks to the south-east we
partook of our luncheon. The seat which I selected
for myself proved to be that chosen by a prehistoric
hunter some sixty centuries ago, for upon the
face of the rock beside it there is a rude archaic
drawing of a man holding a bow. Two French
soldiers of 1799 have here written their names
—
Forcard and Materon—which remain as memorials
of a page of history little remembered at the
present time.
In the afternoon we trotted over open desert
and through shady valleys for about the space of
an hour, at the end of which we reached the spring
known as Bir Ambagi, situated in a fine wady,
with grey-green cliffs on either hand and pink
limestone hills ahead. In this fair setting there
grew the greenest reeds and rushes amidst pools
of the bluest water. A few Ababdeh goats grazed
across the valley, bleating merrily as they went
;
and not a few birds added their notes to the
The Red Sea Highroad. 71
happy fluting of the wind, which, blowing from
over-seas, seemed to set the rushes nodding to
” songs of Araby and tales of old Cashmere.”
Leaving this valley we travelled down a rather
dull wash-out sloping towards the sea, which at
length opened sufficiently to show us a glimpse of
the blue water. There is always something which
penetrates to the heart in one’s first view of the
sea after an interval of months ; and now, the
eyes having accustomed themselves to the barren
desert, the old wonder came upon one with new
weapons, and attacked the senses with new
vigour. One might have shouted for the sheer
pleasure of it ; and when, presently, a group of
green palms passed into view lit by the afternoon
sun, and stood between the sand and the sea, one
felt to the full the power of the assault.
As the hills fell back on either side we passed
on to the wide, flat beach and headed our camels
towards the blue sea, dismounting at last a
hundred yards from the rippling water. Except
for the slow pulse of the waves there was an
unbroken silence over the world. Southwards the
sand stretched to the foot of the hills, beyond
which rose the dreamy peaks of the Tourquoise
Mountains ; northwards the little town of Kossair
lay basking in the sunlight ; to the west the dark
72 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
hills through which we had passed stood waiting
breathlessly to surround the setting sun ; and to
the east the wonderful sea seemed quietly to be
sleeping and sighing in its sleep. Had one stumbled
against the slumbering forms of the lotoseaters
themselves one would hardly have felt
surprise ; for here one might suppose that one
was in a land ” where it was always afternoon,” a
land ” where all things always seemed the same.”
In the little bay, or high and dry upon the sand,
lay vessels of a bygone age—two-masted hulks
with high ponderous sterns. Beside them one
could just discern two men fast asleep ; and had
one awakened them there seemed hardly a doubt
that they would have been found to be as mildeyed
and melancholy as the men of Tennyson’s
poem.
Presently, as we sat listening to the sea, the
sun set, and from the minaret of a mosque in the
town a boy called to the sleepy Faithful their
daily summons to prayer. His voice drifting to
us on the quiet air was the first human sound
which had risen from the little town ; but hardly
had it died away before the distant sound of voices,
and the grunts of camels, warned us of the arrival
of our baggage. A few figures sauntered idly out
of the town to watch us, as the tents were pitched
The Red Sea Highroad. 73
on the beach ; and thus the dream was broken, and
we awoke, as it were, to the knowledge that once
more a human habitation had been reached and
officials had to be interviewed.
A note to the Maltese Mudir or governor of
the town brought that gentleman speedily to our
tents, obviously pleased almost to tears to have
the opportunity of relieving for an hour the
utter boredom of his existence. The Mudir is an
enforced lotos – eater. Corpulent of figure, and
suffering the discomforts of a wall-eye ; having
practically no duties to perform other than those
of the brief official routine ; and having no European
to talk to except his wife, his little daughter,
and an Austrian mechanic, there is nothing left
for him to do but to dream of the time when a
benevolent government shall transfer him to a less
isolated post. The four of us will not soon forget
the ample figure of our guest, clad in white duck,
as he sat upon the edge of our one real chair in
the candle-light, and told us in disused English
how little there is to tell regarding a man’s life in
this sleepy town. There was never a more desolate
smile than that which wreathed his face as he
spoke of the ennui of life, nor a braver twinkle
than that which glinted in his single eye as the
humour of his misfortunes touched him ; and
74 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
though we should meet again in many a merrier
situation—for officials are not left over long at
Kossair—none of us will cease to picture this uncomplaining
servant of the government as, with
unsmoked cigarette and untasted whisky-and-soda,
he told us that evening the meaning of four years
of exile.
Kossair, when he first entered upon his duties,
was a town of 1500 inhabitants ; but these persons
were so miserably poor, and found so little to do,
that at their own request the government transported
about a thousand of them to Suez and the
neighbourhood, where the lotos does not grow and
a man has to keep awake. Now there are but 500
souls in the town, 300 of whom are women and
children. These people wed very young, and there
is much family intermarriage ; but, though they
are a poor lot to look at, there is little mental
degeneracy which can be traced to this cause.
The Mudir, who is also in charge of the coastguards,
is responsible for law and order in Kossair
;
there is a Syrian doctor in charge of the government
dispensary ; the above-mentioned Austrian
mechanic looks after the engine for distilling the
salt water ; a coastguard officer and three men
patrol the coast ; four or five sailors are attached
to the port ; and a native schoolmaster teaches the
T3 MD
H i
0)
be43
iu =^
W
“9 =
Pl. xii.

The Red Sea Highroad. 75
children to read and write : this constitutes the
official element in the town. The inhabitants are
all either of Arab or Ababdeh stock, Egyptians
being entirely wanting. They live mainly on fish
and a little imported bread ; but before the population
was reduced some of the poorer families were
actually eating chopped straw and other food fit
only for animals.
There is very little to be done here, and most of
the inhabitants sleep for two-thirds of the day. A
fast-diminishing trade necessitates the occasional
building or mending of a boat. This trade is done
with camels and goats, which are brought across
from Arabia and are led over the desert to the Nile,
where they are sold at Keneh or elsewhere, the
money being partly expended on grain, which is
then carried back to Arabia. Pilgrims on the way
to and from Mecca use these vessels occasionally,
but the mariners of Kossair cannot be bothered to
extend the tariff.
Except for one small group of palms there is
absolutely no vegetation whatsoever in the neighbourhood,
and even an attempt to grow a few
bushes or flowers near the governor’s quarters,
though carefully persisted in for some time, proved
an utter failure. For his supplies the Mudir is
entirely dependent on the arrival of the govern76
Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
merit steamer every second month ; and if, as had
happened at the time of our visit, this steamer was
late, the unfortunate gentleman becomes comparatively
thin from sheer starvation. Except for
occasional travellers or prospectors no white men
ever visit Kossair ; though if there is cholera at
Mecca an English doctor is sometimes sent to prevent
the disease from passing into Egypt along this
route. Letters and telegrams are every week conveyed
across the desert by an express rider to
Keneh, and an answer to a telegram might be
expected in about a week.
A large sea-water distillery, set up some twelve
or fourteen years ago, provides the town with pure
water; but so few are the inhabitants that it is
only worked twice a month. This good supply of
water is largely responsible for the lack of sickness
in the town. During the last four years only
twenty persons have died, and of these ten were
very young children and ten very old people.
During these years the serious illnesses have only
consisted of two cases of diphtheria : there has
been no cholera, enteric, dysentery, or plague.
Many of the inhabitants live to be centenarians,
and in the town we saw several tottering old
Methuselahs, who looked as though the gods of
the underworld had forgotten them utterly.
The Red Sea Highroad. 77
Of sports there are none for the Mudir to indulge
in. There is no shooting ; he cannot bathe even if
he desired to, because of the sharks ; there are no
boats to sail in worthy the names ; he cannot leave
his post to make camel trips to interesting localities,
even if that amused him, which it does not
;
and the one pastime, the catching of crayfish on
the coral reefs, bores him to distraction. The
climate is so monotonously perfect that it does not
form a topic even of thought : in winter it is mild
and sunny, in summer it is mild and sunnier. It is
never very cold nor very hot, except for the few
days in summer when a hot east wind is blowing.
The Mudir says that he neither increases nor decreases
the amount of his clothing the whole year
round, but always he wears his underclothes, his
tight white – duck tunic, his loose white – duck
trousers, his elastic-sided boots, and his red tarbush
or fez.
After breakfast next morning we walked along
the beach to the stiff, mustard-coloured government
buildings, which stand on a point of land
projecting somewhat into the sea. A spick-andspan
pier and quay, ornamented with three or four
old French cannon and some neat piles of cannonballs,
gave us the impression that we had been
transported suddenly to a second – rate English
78 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
watering-place ; but passing into the building that
impression was happily removed at once. Through
the sunny courtyard we went, and up the stair,
saluted at intervals by the coastguardsmen, who
had donned their best uniforms for the occasion,
and at last we were ushered into the presence of
our Maltese friend, now seated in state at his office
table at the far end of a large airy room. The
windows overlooked the glorious blue sea, and the
breath of an English summer drifted into the room,
bringing with it the sigh of the waves. Nothing
could have been more entrancing than the soft air
and the sun-bathed scene, but to the Mudir it was
anathema, and his back was resolutely turned to
the windows.
After coffee and a brief conversation we were
taken to see the water distillery, of which the
town is immensely proud ; and from thence we
were conducted to the chief mosque of the place, a
picturesque old building which has seen better days.
We were readily admitted by the Reader, who,
however, turned up the grass matting which
covered the floor in order, so the Mudir said, that
our feet might not be dirtied by it, but in reality
in order that the footstep of a Christian should not
defile it. A few men were praying languidly at
one side of the building, and in the opposite corner
The Red Sea Highroad. 79
a man lay snoring upon his back. There was the
silence of sleep upon the place, and, returning to
the almost deserted lanes between the houses outside,
there was hardly a sound to disturb the stillness
of the morning. In the bazaar a few people
were gathered around the two or three shops, at
which business had nigh ceased. A limp-limbed
jeweller was attempting to sell a rough silver ring
to a yawning youth, and, if I am not mistaken, a
young girl who watched the transaction with very
mild interest from the opposite side of the road
was to be the recipient of the jewel. Soon we
passed the open door of the schoolroom, where a
dozen children chanted their A B C in a melancholy
minor ; and presently we came to the chief
sight of Kossair—the old fortress built by the
French at the end of the eighteenth century.
One enters the building through a masonry
archway, closed by a heavy wooden door clamped
with iron. There are still three or four cannon
inside it to tell of its past life, but now the rooms
and courts are whitewashed and are used as camel
stables by the coastguards. I have no books here
in Upper Egypt which will tell me the details of
the Anglo-French struggle for the possession of
Kossair, and I must therefore leave it to my
readers to correct my ignorant statements. It
80 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
appears, then, that a French force occupied the
fortress during the time of Napoleon’s rule in
Egypt, and that one fine day in the year 1800
there came sailing over the sea a squadron of
English men-o’-war, which landed a storming party
so formidable that the French were constrained to
evacuate the place and to retreat across the desert
to Keneh. With the English force there were
a large body of Indian troops, and these were
marched across to the Nile in pursuit of the
French ; but ere more serious operations had taken
place the capitulation of Napoleon’s army brought
the campaign to a close. It is said that when the
Indian soldiers saw representation of the sacred
cow of Hathor upon the walls of the temples of
Koptos and Kus, they fell upon their knees and
did obeisance as in their own temples.
The inhabitants of Kossair live to such an age
and in such stagnation that the stirring events of
these old days are still talked of, and Englishmen
are here still endowed with the prestige of conquerors.
Involuntarily one held one’s head higher
as an old Shekh pointed out the gate through
which the French fled, and that through which the
English bluejackets entered ; and, walking through
the quiet streets back to the tents, one gave a
nautical hitch to the trousers, talked contemptuKossair.
Arabian boats on the beach.—Page 72.
A street in Kossair.
Pl. xiii.

The Red Sea Highroad. 81
ously of ” Boney,” discussed the plans of Lord
Nelson, named the yawning natives whom we
passed ” lazy lubbers,” murmured ” Shiver my
timbers,” called one another “me hearty,” and,
in a word, acted faithlessly to the entente cordiale.
In camp the remainder of the day was spent in
that vague pottering which the presence of the sea
always induces. There were some beautiful shells
upon the shore to attract one, and natives brought
others for sale, lying down to sleep in the shade of
the kitchen tent until we deigned to give them
attention. There were sketches to be made and
photographs to be taken. Amidst the houses at
the south end of the town some fragments of a
Ptolemaic temple were stumbled upon, and the
inscriptions thereon had to be copied. These were
too fragmentary to be of much importance, and,
except for the above-mentioned ancient name of
Kossair there written, no point of particular
interest requires to be noted here. We lunched
and dined off the most excellent fish, a species
named belbul being particularly palatable, while
crayfish and a kind of cockles were immoderately
indulged in. Having arranged to try our hand at
the catching of crayfish during the night hours, we
turned in early to sleep for a short time until the
fishermen should call us.
F
82 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
The summons having come at about 11 p.m., we
set out along the moonlit shore, two fishermen and
a boy accompanying us, carrying nets and lanterns.
Our destination was a spot at which the coral
reefs, projecting into the sea, presented so flat a
surface that the incoming tide would wash over
the whole area at a depth of not more than a few
inches. In the shallow water, we were told, the
crayfish would crawl, attracted by our lanterns,
and we could then pick them up with our fingers.
These crayfish are not at first sight distinguishable
from larger lobsters, though a second glance will
show that the difference lies in the fact that they
have no claws, and therefore can be caught with
impunity. They are fearsome-looking creatures,
nevertheless, often measuring twenty inches or so
from head to tail. In eating them it is hard to
believe that one is not eating the most tasty of
lobsters.
A tedious walk of over three miles somewhat
damped our ardour ; and as the fishermen told us
that the moon was too high and the tide too low
for good hunting, we were not in the best spirits
when at last we turned on to the coral reef. Here,
however, the scene was so weirdly picturesque that
the catching of the crayfish became a matter of
secondary import. The surface of the reef, though
The Red Sea Highroad. 83
flat, was broken and jagged, and much seaweed
grew upon it. In the uncertain light of the moon
it was difficult to walk without stumbling; but
the ghostly figures of the fishermen hovered in
front of us, and silently led the way out towards
the sea, which uttered continuously a kind of
sobbing as it washed over the edges of the
coral reef. This and the unholy wail of the
curlews were the only sounds, for the fishermen
had imposed silence upon us, and the moonlight
furthered their wishes.
As we walked over the reef we had to pick our
way between several small patches of water some
five or six feet in breadth, which appeared to be
shallow pools left by the last tide in the slight
depressions of the rock. Presently one noticed
that in these pools white clouds appeared to be
reflected from the sky, but quickly looking up one
saw that the heavens were cloudless. Staring
closer at the water, it suddenly dawned upon one
that these white clouds were in reality the sand at
the bottom of the pools, and as suddenly came the
discovery that that bottom lay at a depth of fifteen
feet or more. Now one went on hands and knees
to gaze down at those moonlit depths, and one
realised that each pool was a great globular cavern,
the surface area being but the small mouth of it.
84 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
One found oneself kneeling on a projecting ridge
of coral which was deeply undermined all round ;
and, looking down into the bowl, one was reminded
of nothing so much as of an aquarium tank seen
through glass. In the moonlight the cloudy
bottom of the caverns could be discerned, whereon
grew great anemones and the fair flowers of the
sea. Sometimes an arched gallery, suffused with
pale light, led from one cavern to the next, the
ceiling of these passages decorated with dim
plants, the floor with coloured shells. Not easily
could one have been carried so completely into the
realms of Fairyland as one was by the gazing at
these depths. Presently there sailed through the
still water the dim forms of fishes, and now through
the galleries there moved two shining lamps, as
though carried by the little men of the sea to light
them amidst the anemones. Two more small
lamps passed into the cavern and floated through
the water, now glowing amidst the tendrils of the
sea plants, now rising towards the surface, and
now sinking again to the shells, the sand, and the
flowers at the bottom.
It was not at once that one could bring oneself
to realise that these lights were the luminous eyes
of a strange fish, the name of which I do not
know ; but now the fishermen, who had suddenly
The Red Sea Highroad. 85
drawn their net across the edge of the reef and
had driven a dozen leaping creatures on to the
exposed rock, beckoned us to look at this curious
species at close quarters. Their bodies were transparent,
and from around their mouths many filmy
tentacles waved. The eyes were large and brown
in colour, and appeared as fantastic stone orbs set
in a glass body. Many other varieties of fish were
caught as the tide came in ; but it appeared that
the moon was too powerful for successful sport in
regard to the crayfish, and the catch consisted of
but four of these. The sight of the fairy caverns,
however, was entertainment sufficient for one
night ; and it was with discontent that one turned
away from these fair kingdoms of the sea to return
in the small hours of the morning to the tents.
The moonlight, the sobbing of the ocean, the deep
caverns lit by unearthly lamps, left an impression
of unreality upon the mind which it was not easy
to dispel ; and one felt that a glance had been
vouchsafed through the forbidden gates, and a
glimpse had been obtained of scenes unthought
of since the days of one’s childhood. Had we also
tasted of the lotos, and was this but one of the
dreams of dreamy Kossair \
Upon the following day I rode northwards along
the coast to visit the site of the Ptolemaic port,
86 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
which lies about five miles from the modern town.
An hour’s ride against a hard wind brought us to
the little inlet, around which the mounds and
potsherds of the town are scattered. The water
in the bay was of the deepest blue ; a rolling plain
of yellow sand lay eastwards, backed by the darker
ranges of mountains ; and overhead the white
clouds raced by. The sea washed up in a line
of white breakers on to a rising bar of sand, sparkling
with a thousand varieties of shells. Behind
this bar there were pools of water passing inland,
and here there may have been an artificial harbour.
On the south side of the bay bold rocks jutted into
the sea, and on the north there rose a series of
mounds upon which the remains of the old town
were strewn. Walking over these mounds, where
the rhythmic roar of the waves falls continuously
upon the ears, one’s mind was filled with thoughts
of the ancient port which has so utterly fallen, and
of that ancient commerce with the East which must
have been so full of adventure and romance to the
men of old. Here from these mounds the townspeople
have watched the great galleys set out over
the seas for the mysterious land of Hind, and have
seen the wealth of Pount and Arabia unloaded
upon the quay ; and here so many centuries later
the labours of Egyptologists are beginning to perThe
interior of the mosque at Kossair.—Page 78.
The main entrance of the fortress at Kossair.—Page 79.
Pl. XIV

The Red Sea Highroad. 87
mit one to recall something of what they saw,
though the spade of the excavator has not yet
touched this site.
There are two wells within reach of this spot,
but both are two or three hours’ journey away,
and the water question must have been a serious
one. The well to the north is named Bir Guah,
and the other to the west is called Bir Mahowatat.
This latter is the name of a tribe
of Bedwin living at Suez, who state that they
came originally from El Wij in Arabia. It is
interesting to find that a well here should be
named after them, for El Wij is nearly opposite
this point, and one may realise thus what intercourse
there is and always has been between
Arabia and Egypt, even as far south as Kossair.
Returning with the wind at our backs we soon
reached Kossair, and rode through the streets of
the sleepy town to our tents. To tea in the afternoon
came the Mudir, who for an hour or so entertained
us with tales of ennu i. Kossair fell asleep
when the Boman Empire fell, awoke for a moment
in the days of Napoleon, but slid into slumber once
more over a century ago. There was a time when
the east coast steamers used to call here, but now
even they have left the town to its long siesta.
As one listened to the story of decaying trade and
88 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
languid idleness the vision of Tennyson’s lotoseater
was ever in the mind ; and one’s sympathy
was as profound for an official stationed here as
was one’s envy of the man who might be permitted
to rest himself for awhile from his labours upon
this mild, sunny shore. The Mudir was, at the
time of our visit, anxiously awaiting the tardy
arrival of the steamer which was to take him
and his family to Suez for three months’ leave,
and his eye fixed itself upon the sea at every
pause in the conversation ; and when he bid us
farewell at the door of the tent, it was but to
return to his own doorway, where he might
watch for the distant smoke until the sun should
set.
Early next morning we commenced the return
journey to the Nile. As we rode away over the
sloping sand towards the hills in the west we
turned in our saddles to obtain a last view of
the strange little dream-town which was sinking
so surely to its death. The quiet sea rippled upon
the sunlit shore in one long line of blue from the
houses on the north to the Tourquoise Mountains
on the south. Not a trace of smoke nor a sound
rose from the town. On the beach a group of
three men lay sleeping with their arms behind
their heads, while two others crouched languidly
The Red Sea Highroad. 89
on their haunches watching our disappearing
cavalcade. Then, in the silence of the morning,
there came to us on the breeze the soft call to
prayer from the minaret of the mosque. One
could not hear the warbled words ; but to the
sleeping figures on the beach, one thought, they
must surely be akin to those of the song of the
lotos -eaters :
—
” How sweet it were, hearing the downward stream,
“With half-shut eyes ever to seem
Falling asleep in a half-dream !
To hear each other’s whispered speech
;
Eating the lotos day by day,
To watch the crisping ripples on the beach,
j^nd tender curving lines of creamy spray;
To lend our hearts and spirits wholly
To the influence of mild-minded melancholy. …”
On the quay in the far distance we could just
discern a portly white figure gazing steadfastly
out to sea to catch the first glimpse of the
steamer which had been awaited so patiently
for so long.
IV.
THE IMPERIAL PORPHYRY QUARRIES.
Those who have travelled in Italy, and, in the
museums and in the ruins there, have studied
the sculpture and the architectural accessories of
the Roman Imperial age, will be familiar with
that magnificent purple stone known as Imperial
Porphyry. It was one of the most highly prized
of the ornamental stones employed by the great
artists and architects of that age of luxury ; and
the great distance which it had to be brought,
over parched deserts and perilous seas, must have
sent its price up beyond the reach of all save
the rulers of the earth.
The quarries from which this porphyry was
obtained are situated in the region known as
Gebel Dukhan, “the Hills of Smoke,” in the
Eastern Egyptian Desert, some twenty – seven
miles from the Red Sea, opposite the southern
end of the Peninsula of Sinai. Two or three
–
The start from Keneh. Native police loading- the camels.—Page 91
Midday rest at El Ghaiteh. Camels feeding from the bushes.—Page 96.
PL. xv.

The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 91
travellers during the last century have visited
them, and recently the Survey Department of
the Egyptian Government has published a technical
report on the whole district ; but with the
exception of this and an article by the German
explorer Schweinfurth, the literature on the subject,
such as it is, seems to be more or less untraceable.
In 1887 a gentleman of the name of
Brindley obtained a concession there for the reworking
of the quarries, but the project fell
through owing to the difficulties of transporting
the stone. In 1907 Mr John Wells, the Director
of the now defunct Department of Mines, decided
to make an expedition to Gebel Dukhan to report
on the possibilities of reopening the old works
;
and it was with considerable pleasure that I
received, and found myself able to accept, his
invitation to accompany him, in order to see how
far the Department of Antiquities could concur
in the projects of modern engineers.
We set out from Keneh, a town on the Nile
some 400 miles above Cairo, in the middle of
March : a time of year when one cannot be sure
of good weather in Egypt, for the winter and the
summer together fight for the mastery, and the
hot south winds vie with the cold north winds in
ferocity. Sand-storms are frequent in the desert
92 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
in this month, and these, though seldom dangerous,
can be extremely disagreeable. We were, however,
most fortunate in this respect ; and, in spite
of the fact that the winds were strong, I do not
recall any particular discomfort experienced from
them, though memory brings back the not rare
vision of men struggling with flapping tents and
flying ropes. Our caravan consisted of some fifty
camels, of which about thirty -five carried the
baggage and water ; a dozen were ridden by ourselves,
Mr Wells’ police, our native assistants, and
others ; and two or three belonged to the Shekh
and the guides.
The business of setting out is always trying to
the patience. The camelmen attempt to load
their beasts lightly in order that more may be
employed ; they dawdle over the packing that
the day’s journey may be short ; the camels,
unused to their burdens, perform such antics as
may rid them the most quickly of the incubus
;
the untried ropes break as the last knot is tied,
and the loads fall to the ground ; the ridingcamels
are too fresh, and, groaning loudly, revolve
in small circles, as though one’s whistle of
encouragement were a waltz. There are no people
in the world so slovenly, so unpractical, or—if one
may use a very slang word—so footling, as the
The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 93
inhabitants of the Eastern Desert. One has heard
so often of the splendid desert tribes, of fine figures
and flashing eyes, of dignity and distinction, of
gracious manners and lofty words, that one has
come to expect the members of one’s caravan to
be as princely as they are picturesque. It is with
a shock that one finds them to be but ragged
weaklings, of low intelligence and little dignity.
Is this, one asks, the proud Bedwi whose ears are
now being boxed by one’s servant ? And are these
the brave sons of the desert who are being kicked
into shape by that smart negro policeman, the son
of slaves ? Look now, eight or ten of the Bedwin
have quarrelled over their camels, and are feeling
for their knives in preparation for a fight : shall
we not see some stirring action, redolent of the
brave days of old ? No ; the black policeman
seizes his camel-whip and administers to as many
as he can catch of the flying wretches as sound
a beating as any naughty boys might receive.
Lean -faced, hungry -eyed, and rather upright in
carriage, one may expect them to be quick-witted
and endowed with common – sense. Yet of all
stupid people these unwashed miseries are the
stupidest ; and as one sees them at the starting
of a caravan, muddling the ropes, upsetting the
loads, yawning, scratching themselves, squabbling
94 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
in high, thin voices, and tripping over their antiquated
swords and long guns, one’s dream of the
Bedwin in this part of the desert fades and no
more returns.
Perhaps, however, it is the point of view which
is at fault. Did one live in the desert without
a deed to do or a thought to think beyond those
connected with the little necessities of life, and
with so vague a knowledge of time and distance
as such an existence requires, one’s notion of the
practical might be different, and one’s idea of
intelligence might be less lofty. Perhaps, too,
one has not yet met with the genuine types of
the race ; for the camel- drivers employed by an
economical Shekh, and the goatherds wTho wander
through the valleys, may be but the riff-raff cast
off from the more remote tribes. Moreover, there
are a few exceptions to the general rule which
may be met with even amongst the camelmen, but
these are hardly sufficiently notable to record.
At last a start was made ; and riding northeastwards
over the hot, sandy plain, we trotted
slowly towards the distant limestone hills which
rose above a shifting mirage of lake-like vapour.
For some miles our road led over the hard, flat
desert ; but opportunely at the lunching hour we
passed a spur of rock which afforded welcome
The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 95
shade, and here we rested for an hour or so.
At this point there is a well, known as Bir
Arras, rather prettily situated amidst tamariskbushes
and desert scrub ; but as it is only ten
miles distant from Keneb it is not much used by
travellers. Riding on in the afternoon, we verged
somewhat to the left, and passed along a valley
much broken up by low mounds of sand collected
round the decayed roots of bushes ; and here
several thriving tamarisks and other small trees
lent colour to the scene. Soon we turned again
to the left, and presently crossed two projecting
spurs of the low hills, upon which beacons of stone
had been erected in Roman days, on either side of
the track, to mark the road. It is interesting to
find that along the whole length of the route from
Keneh to the quarries these piles of stone have
been placed at irregular intervals in order that
the traveller should have no difficulty in finding
his \v7ay. Towards evening the tracks led us up
the clearly marked bed of a dry river, bordered
by tamarisks and other bushes ; and, passing along
this for a short distance, we called a halt, and
pitched the tents amongst the sand hillocks to
one side. The following morning we were on the
road soon after sunrise ; and, riding along the dry
river-bed, we presently reached the Roman station
96 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
of El Ghaiteh, which lies, in all, some seven and
a half hours’ trot from Keneh. This is the first
of the Roman posts on the road from Keneh to
Gebel Dukhan, and here the ancient express caravans
halted for the night. At the foot of a lowhill
there is a fortified rectangular enclosure, in
which several rooms with vaulted roofs are built.
The walls are constructed of broken stones, and
still stand some twelve feet or more in height.
The entrance is flanked by round towers, and
passing through it one sees on the left a large
tank, built of burnt bricks and cement, in which
the water, brought from the well in the plain, was
stored. Just to the north of the station there are
the ruins of the animal lines, where rough stone
walls have been built on a well-ordered plan,
forming a courtyard in which the stalls run in
parallel rows. Above the enclosure, on the hilltop,
there are some carefully constructed buildings
of sun-dried brick, which may have been the
officers’ quarters. Resting in the shade of the
ruins, one’s eye wandered over the sun – burnt
desert to the hazy hills beyond, and thence back
along the winding river-bed to the bushes at the
foot of the hill, where the camels lazily cropped
the dry twigs, and where green dragon – flies
hovered against the intensely blue sky. Then
The Roman station at El Ghaiteh, looking down from the officers’
quarters on the hill. A dry river-bed bordered by bushes runs
across the plain.—Page 96.
A tank for storing water inside the station of El Ghaiteh. —Page 96.
PL. XVI.

The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 97
again the ruins claimed one’s attention, and
presently one seemed to forget the things of
the present time, and to drift back to the days
when the blocks of Imperial Porphyry were heaved
and hoisted, carried and dragged along this road
to the Nile and to Rome.
A ride of somewhat over three hours across wide,
undulating, gravel plains brought us to the next
Roman station, known as Es Sargieh, which lies
between two low mounds just to the north of the
main track. Here a large excavation has been
made in order to obtain water, and at its edge
there are the remains of troughs and tanks constructed
of brick and cement. The sand and clay
from the excavation has been thrown up in an:
embankment, so as to form a rectangular enclosure..
At one end there are the ruins of a few chambers,
and the animal lines near by are clearly marked.
Es Sargieh marks the point where the road divides,
one track leading to Gebel Dukhan, and the other
to the white granite quarries of Um Etgal ; and it
was thus an important watering-station.
From this point for the rest of the day our road
lay across a hard flat plain, bounded in the distance
ahead by the dim peaks of granite mountains. As
we had stopped some considerable time at the two
Roman ruins, the baggage camels and men had
G
98 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
pushed far in advance, and, with characteristic
stupidity, continued to do so, though the sun went
down and the stars came out. It was not till long
past dinner-time that, riding furiously through the
darkness, we managed to catch them up ; and
hungry, aching, and cross, we quickly devoured a
cold meal and rolled into bed. During the night
a gale of wind came near to overthrowing the tents,
for we had bivouacked where we had overtaken
the caravan, upon the exposed plain. The night
air felt bitterly cold as, clad in pyjamas, one pulled
at ropes and hammered at pegs ; but it was a surprise
to find the thermometer standing at 32 D
Fahrenheit at this time of year.
Having camped in the darkness, it was not till
daybreak that we realised that we had now crossed
the plain, and were already near the mouth of a
valley which led into a region of dark rocks between
two ranges of hills. Not long after sunrise
we mounted our camels, and presently passed into
this valley. Jagged cliffs towered above the road,
and behind them the soft brown hills rose in an
array of dimly seen peaks. A ride of two hours up
this valley—that is to say, altogether about five
hours’ trot from Es Sargieh—brought us to the
Roman station of El Atrash. There is a fortified
enclosure containing several regularly arranged
The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 99
buildings, a tank, and a deep, circular well constructed
of brick. The gateway is flanked by
brick towers up which the steps can still be traced.
Outside the enclosure there are the usual animal
lines ; and near by there lies a large block of
porphyry which must have been abandoned for
some reason on its way to the river. The scenery
here is wild and desolate. There was a feeling, as
the eye passed from range to range of menacing
hills and up to the grey clouded sky, that one was
travelling in the moon. The day was cold and
misty, and the sharp air already told of the
altitude to which we had risen—now nearly 2000
feet.
From here the road led through valleys lying
between hills of ever-increasing height. The colour
of the rocks now changed from a deep brown to a
kind of soft purple ; while the ground over which
we were moving, being composed of particles of red
granite, turned to a curious rosy hue. It was as
though one were looking through tinted glass
;
and these combinations of colour—the red valley,
the purple hills, and the grey sky—gave to the
scene a beauty indescribable.
We lunched in the shadow of the rocks, and
sleeping on the ground thereafter one’s dreams
were in mauves and burnt-siennas.
ioo Travels in Upper Egypt desert safari .
Mounting again and riding along this wonderful
valley, feeling more than ever like Mr H. G. Wells’
men in the moon, early in the afternoon we reached
the Roman station of Wady Gatar, which lies in a
hollow amidst lofty hills, some three and a half
hours’ ride from El Atrash. The station consists,
as before, of an enclosure, chambers, disused well,
and animal lines ; but it is more ruined than the
other posts which we had seen. There is a well
not far from this point, to which the camels were
sent to be watered ; and we were thus able to
spend a quiet afternoon in our camp amongst the
hills.
Towards sunset I climbed to the top of a low
mound of rocks which overlooked the fortress, and
there the silence of the evening and the strangeness
of the surrounding hues enhanced to a point
almost of awe the sense of aloofness which this
part of the desert imposes upon one. On the right
the line of a valley drew the eyes over the dim,
brown waves of gravel to the darkness of the
rugged horizon. Behind, and sweeping upward,
the sky was a golden red ; and this presently
turned to green, and the green to deep blue. On
the left some reflected light tinged the eastern sky
with a suggestion of purple, and against this the
nearer mountains stood out darkly. In front the
The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 101
low hills met together, and knit themselves into
shapes so strange that one might have thought
them the distortions of a dream. There was not a
sound to be heard, except once when an unseen
flight of migatory birds passed with a soft whir
high overhead. The light was dim,—too dark to
read the book which I carried. Nor was there
much desire to read ; for the mind was wandering,
as the eyes were, in an indistinct region of unrealities,
and was almost silent of thought.
Then in the warm, perfect stillness, with the
whole wilderness laid prone in that listless haze
which anticipates the dead sleep of night, there
came—at first almost unnoticed—a small, black,
moving mass, creeping over an indefinite hill- top.
So silently it appeared, so slowly moved nearer,
that one was inclined to think it a part of the dream,
a vague sensation passing across the solemn, sleepy
mind of the desert. Presently, very quietly, the
mass resolved itself into a compact flock of goats.
Now it was drawing nearer, and one could discern
with some degree of detail the little procession
—
the procession of dream-ideas one might have said,
for it was difficult to face facts in the twilight.
Along the valley it moved, and, fluttering in the
wind, there arose a plaintive bleating and the wail
of the goatherds pipe. He—one could see him
102 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
now—was walking in advance of his flock, and his
two hands held a reed from which he was pouring
the ancient melodies of his race. From the hill-top
I could soon look down on the flock as it passed
below. It had become brown in colour ; and as
the pipe ceased awhile the shuffle and patter of a
hundred little creatures could be heard. It was a
gentle sound, more inclined to augment than to
diminish the dreamy character of the procession.
Behind the flock two figures moved, their
white garments fluttering in the wind, changing
grotesquely the form and shape of the wearers.
Over the gravel they went, and at a distance
followed the dogs of the herd, growling as they
passed. Over the gravel and down the valley,
and with them went the gentle patter and the
wandering refrain of the reed pipe. Then a bend
in the path, or may be the fading of the dream,
and the flock was seen no more. But in the darkness
which had gathered one was almost too listless
to feel that aught had passed beyond one’s
pale.
We left Wady Gatar the next day soon after
lunch and entered another fine valley. On the
right the granite cliffs sloped up to the misty sky
in clean, sheer faces of rock. On the left range
after range of dimly peaked hills carried ones
The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 103
thoughts into the clouds. The afternoon was sunless
and the air bracing and keen. The camels,
after their long drink, were ready for work, and
we were soon swinging up the valley at a brisk
trot. The road turned from side to side, now
leading in a dozen clear tracks up the wide,
gravelled bed of some forgotten torrent, and now
passing in a single narrow path from one valley
to the next. With every turn new groups of
mountains became visible and higher peaks slid
into sight. The misty air lent a softness to these
groups, blending their varied colours into almost
celestial harmonies of tone. Gradually the ranges
mounted, until at last, as the afternoon began to
draw in, the towering purple mountains of Gebel
Dukhan rose from behind the dark rocks to the
left of our road.
It was almost sunset before we reached the foot
oi this range, and the cloudy sun was passing
behind the more distant hills as a halt was called.
We were now in a wide, undulating valley, which
was hemmed in by the superb mountains on three
sides and disclosed low, open country towards the
north-east. The beams of the hidden sun shot up
from behind the dark hills in a sudden glare of
brightness, and presently the clouded sky turned
to a deep crimson. The lofty peaks of the southern
104 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
mountains now caught the disappearing sunshine
and sprang out of the mist in a hundred points of
vivid red. For only a few minutes the conflagration
lasted, but before it had fully died out the
vaporous outlines in the far distance towards the
north-east took form and colour, and the last gleam
of sunlight revealed, some twenty miles away, the
thin line of the sea, and above it the stately
mountains of Sinai. A moment later the vision
had passed, the sun had set, and in the gathering
darkness the baggage camels, lumbering round a
bend, came into sight, calling our attention to
more material things.
In the semi-darkness, while our meal was being
prepared, we visited a Roman station which stands
in the Wady Bileh at the foot of the Gebel
Dukhan mountains, about three and a quarter
hours’ trot from the fortress of Wady Gatar. The
porphyry quarries and the settlement lay in the
valley at the other side of the range of hills at the
foot of which we were now standing ; and to reach
them one might either climb by an ancient path
over a pass in the range, or one might ride round
by the tortuous valley—a journey said to be of
nearly thirty miles. This station was thus the
first night’s halting-place for express caravans
returning from the quarries. At one side of the
The excavation inside the enclosure of El Sargieh.—Page 97.
The Roman station at El Greiyeh. The animal lines. The brick pillars
supported the roof under which were the night stalls. Page 139.
Pl. xvii.

The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 105
wide, ancient road stands the usual small enclosure,
having a doorway flanked with towers, and containing
a few ruined chambers and a well. At the
other side a cluster of granite rocks rising into a
small mound had been surrounded by a stout wall,
either in order that it should serve as a fortress, or
because these rocks were for some reason sacred.
There was nothing particularly noteworthy about
the station, but, lying amidst such wild and magnificent
scenery, it assumed in the half-light a
charm which will not soon be forgotten.
At dawn next morning we set out on foot to
climb over the pass to the quarries. The sun was
struggling to penetrate the soft mists as we started
the actual ascent, and the air was cold and invigorating.
Here and there one could detect the
old Roman path passing up the hillside, but it was
so much broken that a climb up the dry watercourse,
across which it zigzagged, was preferable.
At the immediate foot of the pass there is a small
Roman fort containing three or four rooms, and at
the highest point, which is 3150 feet above sealevel,
there is a ruined rest-house, where the tired
climber, no doubt, was able to obtain at least a pot
of water. Here at the summit we had a wonderful
view of the surrounding country. Behind us
the mountains rose in a series of misty ranges, and
106 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
he fore us lay the valley of Gebel Dukhan winding
between the porphyry hills, while beyond them the
northern mountains rose to some 6000 feet in the
distance. The Roman road, descending on this
side, was well preserved, and we were able to run
down the 1200 feet or so, which brought us breathless
to the level of the valley. The temple, town,
and quarries lay about a mile down the Wady, at
a point where there was a considerable breadth
of flat gravel between the hills on either side.
The town ruins—a cluster of crowded houses
enclosed by a fortified wall—stand on the slope of
the hill. A fine terrace runs along the east side,
and up to this a ramp ascends. Passing through
the gateway one enters the main street, and the
attention is first attracted by an imposing building
on the right hand. Here there are several chambers
leading into an eight-pillared hall, at the end
of which a well-made and well-preserved plungebath
eloquently tells of the small pleasures of
expatriated Roman officers. A turning from the
main street brings one into an open courtyard,
where there are two ovens and some stone dishes
to be seen, besides a large quantity of pottery
fragments. Around this in every direction the
little huts are huddled, narrow lanes dividing one
set of chambers from the next. The town is, of
The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 107
course, very ruined ; but it does not require much
imagination to people it again with that noisy
crowd of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian quarrymen.
One sees them prising out the blocks of purple
porphyry from the hillside high above the valley,
returning in the evening down the broad causeway
to the town, or passing up the steps to the temple
which stands on a knoll of granite rocks a couple
of hundred yards to the north-east.
The steps lead one up to a platform which
formed the forecourt of the temple. This court
is now covered with the ruins of what was once
a fine granite portico rising on the east side.
Four columns supported an inscribed architrave
and decorated cornice, above which was the pediment
or pointed roof. Behind this portico stood
the sanctuary, built of broken stones carefully
mortared and plastered to the necessary smoothness.
A granite doorway led from one side into
the vestry. In the forecourt, amidst the ruins,
stands the granite altar, in its original position
;
and near it lies the architrave with the proud
inscription : ” For the safety and the eternal
victory of our Lord Caesar Trajan Hadrian, absolute,
august, and all his house ; to the Sun, the
great Serapis, and to the co-enshrined gods, this
temple, and all that is in it, is dedicated.” Then
108 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
follow the names of the Governor of Egypt, the
Superintendent of the Mines, and other officials.
In the middle of the valley there is the well,
which is now choked. A gallery, the roof of
which was supported by five pillars, passes in
a half-circle round one side of the well ; and a
shallow drain in the pavement seems to have
carried a stream of water along it. Here the
workmen could sit in the shade to ease the thirst
which exercise on the hot hills so soon creates
;
and on our return journey up the pass we
looked back more than once to this cool gallery
and to the plunge-bath with a kind of envy of
the past.
The quarries are cut here and there on the
hillside without any regularity. The blocks of
porphyry were prised out of the rock wherever
the work could most easily be carried on, and
the action of the years has so dulled the broken
surfaces that they now look almost like those
of the natural mountain. The blocks were carried
clown to the Nile, and in fact to Rome, in the
rough, without even a preliminary dressing; for
the work in this distant place had to be shortened
as much as possible.
Looking, in the European museums, at the fine
capitals, the polished basins, the statues, and the
Granite hills to the south of Wady Bileh. The Gebel Dukhan
range is to the north of this wady.—Page 104.
Ruins of the Roman temple at Gebel Dukhan, showing the hillside
from which the porphyry was taken.—Page 107.
Pl. xviii.

The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 109
many other objects cut out of Imperial Porphyry,
one has admired the work of the mason or the
genius of the artist. But here in the Hills of
Smoke one thinks of these antiquities with a
feeling bordering on veneration. If the workmanship
tells of an art that is dead, how much louder
does the material cry out the praises of an energy
that is also dead? Each block of stone is the
witness of a history of organisation and activity
almost beyond thought. This purple porphyry
was not known to the ancient Egyptians : a
Roman prospector must have searched the desert
to find it. One would have thought that the
aloofness of the valley from which it is to be
procured would have kept its existence the secret
of the hills ; for on the one side a winding pathway,
thirty miles in length, separates the spot
from the little-known main road, and on the other
side a barrier of steep hills shuts it off from the
Wady Bileh.
Although Gebel Dukhan is so near the Red Sea,
it was not possible for the stone to be transported
by ship to Suez. The barren coast here was
harbourless, except for the port of Myos Hormos,
which was too far away to be practicable; and
the stone would have had to be unloaded at
Suez, and dragged across the desert to the neighno
Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
bourhood of the modern Port Said. Every block
of porphyry had therefore to be carried across
the desert to Keneh, the old Kainepolis, on the
Nile, and thence shipped by river-barge to the
sea. Here it had to be transhipped to the great
Mediterranean galleys, and thus conveyed across
the treacherous sea to the port of Eome.
Probably the blocks were dragged by oxen or
men upon rough waggons, for the roads are not
bad, except at certain places. To ride from Keneh
to Wady Bileh, at the quiet five -miles -an -hour
trot of the camel, took us altogether twenty-two
and a half hours ; that is to say, the total distance
is about 112 miles or so. The winding path from
Wady Bileh up the valley to the quarries brings
this total to about 140 miles ; and the caravans
could not have covered this in less than eight
days. On the first night after leaving Keneh
the camp was probably pitched in the open. On
the second night the station of El Ghaiteh was
reached, and here there were provisions, water,
and a small garrison. The third night was spent
at Es Sargieh, where water was to be obtained.
On the fourth night the houses of El Atrash
sheltered the travellers, water and provisions
being here obtainable. On the fifth night Wady
Gatar was reached, where again there was a well.
The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 1 1
1
The sixth night was passed at Wady Bileh, from
whence express messengers could pass over the
hill to the quarries. The seventh night was spent
in the open, and on the following day the settlement
was reached.
The long road was rendered dangerous by the
incursions of the desert peoples, and many of the
hills between the fortified stations are crowned
with ruined watch-towers. Roman troops must
have patrolled the road from end to end, and the
upkeep of these garrisons must have been a considerable
expense. The numerous stone-cutters
and quarrymen had to be fed and provided for
;
and for this purpose an endless train of supplies
had to be brought from the Nile valley. Oxen or
donkeys for this purpose, and for the transporting
of the porphyry, had to be kept constantly on the
move. At Keneh a service of barges had to be
organised, and at the seaport the galleys had
to be in readiness to brave the seas with their
heavy loads.
It is of all this—of the activity, the energy, the
bravery, the power of organisation, the persistency,
the determination—that an object executed in
Imperial Porphyry tells the story.
The quarries were worked until about the fifth
century a.d., for the Byzantine Emperors derived
ii2 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
from their Roman predecessors an affection for
this fine purple stone. There is a Greek inscription
on the path leading up to one of the
workings, which reads, ” Katholeke Ekklesia,” and
which is perhaps the latest example of old-world
activity in the Eastern Desert. There is no other
place in the world where this porphyry is to be
found, and when the quarries at last ceased to
be worked, some time previous to the seventh
century, the use of that stone had to cease also,
nor has it ever again been procurable.
One wonders whether there will come a time
when some millionaire, fresh from the museums
of Italy, will express a wish to pave his bathroom
with the purple stone of the Emperors ; and
whether the Hills of Smoke will again ring with
the sound of the hammer and chisel, in response
to the demands of a new fashion.
It may be that some day the tourist will awake
to the advantages and attractions of the Eastern
Desert as a motoring country, will rush through
the wadys, will visit the ancient centres of activity,
will see these quarries, and will desire the porphyry.
With a little preparation the road from
Keneh to Gebel Dukhan could be made practicable
for automobiles ; and when once the land ceases to
be but the territory of the explorer and the prosThe
Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 113
pector, one may expect its mineral products to be
seen, to be talked of, and finally to be exploited.
In the late afternoon we left the valley, and
climbed slowly up the Roman road to the summit
of the pass, halting here to drink deeply from our
water-bottles. The descent down the dry watercourse
was accomplished in a long series of jumps
from boulder to boulder, at imminent peril of a
sprained ankle. The grey rocks were smooth and
slippery, and between them there grew a yellowflowered
weed which, when trodden upon, was as
orange-peel. The rapid rush down the hillside,
the setting sun, and the bracing wind, caused our
return to camp to take its place amongst the most
delightful memories of the whole expedition. Once
we halted, and borrowing the carbines of the native
police, we shot a match of half a dozen rounds
apiece, with a spur of stone as target. The noise
echoed amongst the rocks ; and a thousand feet
below we saw the ant-like figures of our retainers
anxiously hurrying into the open to ascertain the
cause of the disturbance. »
As we neared the bottom of the hill the sun
set, and once more this wonderful valley was lit
with the crimson afterglow, and once more the
mountains of Sinai stood out for a moment from
the gathering mists above the vivid line of the
H
ii4 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
Red Sea. Darkness had fallen when at last, footsore
and weary, we reached the camp ; and one
was almost too tired to enjoy the sponge-down in
the half-basin of water which is all that can be
allowed in this waterless region, and the meal
of tinned food which followed. As one fell to
sleep that night, one’s dreams were all of strenuous
labours : of straining oxen and sweating men ; of
weary marches and unsuspected ambushes ; of the
sand-banks of the Nile and the tempests of the sea.
But ever in the far distance one seemed to be conscious
of thoughtless, implacable men, dipping
their bejewelled fingers into the basins of purple
porphyry as they reclined in the halls of Imperial
Rome.
On the following morning our party divided,
Mr Wells and the greater part of the caravan
going north-east to the petroleum wells of Gebel
Zeit on the sea-coast, and I to Um Etgal, the
Mons Claudianus of the ancients, where the white
granite, also so much admired by the Romans, was
quarried from the hillside.
The ruins of the town of Gebel Dukhan. The upright pillars
of granite supported a roof.—Page 106.
The Roman town oi~ Mons Claudianus, looking south from the causeway
loading to the main quarry. The round piles of stone in the
foreground are built at intervals along the causeway,— Page 124.
Pi., xix.

V.
THE QUARRIES OF MONS CLAUDIANUS.
In the previous chapter an account was given of
a journey made to the Imperial porphyry quarries
of Gebel Dukhan in the month of March 1907.
These quarries are to be found about a score or
so of miles from the Red Sea at a point in the
Eastern Desert opposite the southern end of the
Peninsula of Sinai. From Gebel Dukhan I returned
to the Nile by way of the white granite
quarries of Um Etgal, the ancient Mons Claudianus,
and thence past the old gold workings of
Fatireh to Keneh.
My caravan was composed of a riding party
consisting of myself, my native assistant, my
servant, and a guide ; and the baggage -train of
a dozen camels and men, and a couple of guards.
The guide was a picturesque, ragged old man,
whose face was wizen and wrinkled by the glare
of the desert. His camel was decked with swinging
tassels of black and yellow, and across his
n6 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
saddle there was slung a gun at least seven feet
long, while at his side there hung a broad-bladed
sword in an old red -leather case. In his belt
there were two knives, and in his hand he carried
a stout bludgeon, something in the form of a
hockey – stick. This latter is the weapon most
generally carried by the Ababdeh and other desert
peoples, and its antiquity is evidenced by the fact
that the earliest hieroglyph for “a soldier ” in the
script of ancient Egypt represents a figure holding
just such a stick.
The old guide was followed by three lean, yellow
dogs, who seemed to be much bored by the journey
and dejected by the sterility around. He was a
man of some dignity, and took considerable pride
in riding at the head of the little procession in
order to show the way, although, except at the
cross-roads, the tracks were perfectly plain and
the ancient beacons were generally to be seen.
Once or twice I made an attempt to pass him
so that I might have an uninterrupted view of
the scenery ; for the sight of a ragged, huddled
back and the hindquarters of a betasseled camel
is inclined to pall after a while. But these
efforts ended in a short, hard race, in which I
was generally the loser ; nor had I the heart to
order the old man to the rear thereafter.
The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 117
We set out from the camp at Wady Bileh, the
nearest point to Gebel Dukhan on the main road,
soon after daybreak, and passed along the wonderful
valley leading back to the Roman station of
Wady Gatar, which I have already described, our
route branching off towards the south just before
reaching that place. The road then led along a
fine valley, up which a blustering north wind went
whistling, and it was only by donning an overcoat
and by trotting at a smart pace that one
could pretend to feel comfortably warm. Soon
after noon I halted near some thorn – trees, in
the shelter of which luncheon was presently
spread. A vulture circling overhead watched
our party anxiously, in the vain hope that somebody
would drop dead, but on seeing us mount
again to continue the journey it sailed away disgustedly
over the windy hill-top.
It was still cold and stormy when, after trotting
altogether for five hours from Wady Bileh, we
arrived at the well of Um Disi, where the camp
was pitched in order that the camels might drink
and graze. The well is the merest puddle in the
sand amidst the smooth boulders of a dry watercourse,
hidden under the overhanging cliffs of
granite. It lies in the corner of a wide amphitheatre
of gravel and sand, completely shut in
n8 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
by the mountains. Bushes of different kinds
grow in great profusion over this amphitheatre,
and from the tent door, when the eye was tired
of wandering upon the many- coloured hills, one
might stare in a lazy dream at a very garden
of vegetation, around which the grey wagtails
flitted and the dragon-flies slowly moved. It is
an ideal place for a camp, and one but wished
that more than a night could have been spent
there ; for one would have liked to have explored
the surrounding hills and valleys, and to have
stalked the gazelle which had left their footprints
near the well.
The nights up here in this locality, which must
be some 1500 or more feet above the sea, were
bitterly cold, in spite of the approaching summer.
There is perhaps no place where one more keenly
feels a low temperature than in the desert ; and
here at Um Disi, where the air is that of the
mountains, a colder night was passed than it has
ever been my lot to endure—with the exception,
perhaps, of one occasion some years ago when, with
another student of archaeology, I spent the night
upon the flint -covered hill -tops of the Western
Desert. Our baggage and bedding had then failed
to reach us, and we were obliged to sleep in our
clothes and overcoats, dividing a newspaper to
The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 119
act as a cover for the neck and ears. By midnight
we were so cold that we were forced to
dance a kind of hornpipe in order to set the
circulation going again in the veins ; and my
friend was light-hearted enough to accompany
this war -dance with a breathless rendering of
the hymn, ” We are but little children meek,”
which had been dinned into his head, he told
me, while staying at a mission school in another
part of Egypt. Memory recalls the scene of the
dark figure shuffling and swaying in the clear
starlight, the biting wind whistling around the
rocks in rhythmless accompaniment ; and yet it
does not seem that so much discomfort was then
felt as was experienced in the flapping tent at
Um Disi.
The journey was continued early next morning,
the road leading out from the amphitheatre
through a gauge on the eastern side. There was
now some difficulty about the method of travelling,
for only the guide knew the way ; and as he rode
with us, there was danger of our losing the slowly
moving baggage camels, which always followed
behind, catching us up at our halts for luncheon
and other refreshment. I therefore took with me
some bags of torn paper, and at every turning
of the path, or at the cross-tracks, I threw down
120 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
a few handfuls in the manner of a paper-chase;
and thus, though the path here wound from one
valley to another in the most perplexing manner,
the caravan reached its destination almost as soon
as we.
It was disappointing to find that our camelmen,
born and bred in the desert, were unwilling to
take the responsibility of following safely in our
tracks. One would have thought that the footprints
of our camels would have been as easy for
them to trace on an unfrequented path as torn
paper is to us. The guide, on the other hand,
showed a really wonderful knowledge of the intricate
paths ; for it is not reasonable to suppose
that he had travelled between Gebel Dukhan and
Um Etgal more than two or three times in his
life, this being off the main routes through the
desert. He did not once hesitate or look around,
although when questioned he declared that many
years had passed since last he had been here.
In these valleys we met, for the first time for
some days, one or two Bed win. A ragged figure,
carrying a battle – axe and a mediaeval sword,
sprang up from the rocks, where he was tending
a flock of goats, and hurried across to shake hands
with our guide. The two entered into earnest
conversation in low tones ; and the old guide,
Mons Claudianus. The town.—Pag-e 124.
.^
V^-“*rq? ft
<
Mons Claudianus. Chambers on the west side of the forecourt oi the
Temple. The threshold and base of a column of the granite
portico are seen on the right.—Page 126.
Pl. xx.

The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 121
after pointing with his lean finger to his bag of
food, which was every day diminishing in size,
and then to the hungry dogs, dismounted from
his camel, tied up one of the dogs, and handed
it over to his wild friend. A few hours later
another ragged figure, this time a Bishari, carrying
a long gun, ran forward to greet us, and to
him the guide delivered over his second dog, after
a similar discussion with regard to his food-bag.
For over a mile from this point, after the dog and
his new master had diminished to mere specks
on the rocks, the wind brought down to us the
melancholy howls of the former and the unconcerned
song of the latter to his goats.
Our way led up the wide Wady Ghrosar, which
ends in a pass, from the top of which a magnificent
view is obtained. This point was reached in a
trot of about three and three-quarter hours from
Bir Um Disi. One looks down upon a great lake
of sand, amidst which the groups of dark granite
hills rise like a thousand islands, while dim ranges
enclose the scene on all sides. From this huge
basin a hundred valleys seem to radiate, and it
would be an easy matter to head for the wrong
peak and to lose oneself upon the undulating
sands. Descending a smooth slope, we rested for
luncheon in the shade of a group of rocks; and
122 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
presently mounting our camels again, we crossed
the basin and entered a series of intricate valleys,
which became more and more narrow and enclosed
as the day wore on, giving us good reason to
doubt whether our baggage camels would manage
to follow. At last, in the late afternoon, after a
ride of rather under four hours from the top of
Wady Ghrosar, a turn in the path brought the
town of Mons Claudianus suddenly into view ; and
in a moment the camels were forgotten, and the
wonderfully preserved remains had carried one
back to the days of the Emperors Trajan and
Hadrian.
The hills of Um Etgal supplied Rome with a
fine white granite speckled with black, which was
deservedly popular for building purposes during
the Imperial age. The stone was not employed
by the ancient Egyptians, and it was left to a
Roman prospector to discover its existence and to
open quarries. The settlement which was founded
here was known generally as Mons Claudianus,
but in honour of the Emperor Trajan the well
which supplied it with water was called Fons
Trajanus, and this name was sometimes applied
to the town. The stone was transported from
here to the Nile on waggons drawn by oxen or
men, and was placed upon barges at Keneh. It
The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 123
was then floated down the stream to the sea,
where it was transhipped to the galleys which
bore it across the Mediterranean to the port of
Rome. The distance from here to the Nile must
be about ninety-five miles, since it took us nearly
nineteen hours of five-miles-an-hour trotting to
cover the distance ; and, as will be seen, the blocks
which were dispatched from the quarries were of
enormous size. It must have been an easier matter
to transport the Imperial Porphyry from Gebel
Dukhan to the river ; for the objects executed
in that stone wrere not usually of a size to require
particularly large blocks. But the great pillars
which were cut from the white granite were often
of dimensions which one would have regarded as
prohibitive to transportation. In order to reduce
the weight to the minimum the columns were
dressed on the spot to within an inch or so of
their final surface, whereas the porphyry blocks
were light enough to be sent down in the rough.
This is the explanation of the fact that at Gebel
Dukhan there was but a small town, whereas here
at Um Etgal the settlement was far more elaborate
and extensive. Skilled masons had to live at
Mons Claudianus as well as quarrymen, engineers
as well as labourers ; and the architects themselves
may have had to visit the quarries on certain
124 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
occasions. If one has admired the enterprise
which is displayed in the works at Gebel Dukhan,
an even greater call on one’s admiration will be
made at Urn Etgal ; and those who would fully
realise the power of the Roman Empire should
make their slow way to these distant quarries,
should realise the enormous difficulties of their
working, and should think for a moment that
all this activity was set in motion by the mere
whim of an Emperor.
The town, enclosed by a buttressed and fortified
wall, stands in a valley between the rocky hills
from which the white granite was quarried. A
broad road leads up to the main entrance. On
the left side of this stand various ruined houses,
and on the right there is a large enclosure in
which the transport animals were stabled. Over
half this enclosure there was a roof, supported
by numerous pillars ; but the other half stands
open, and still contains line upon line of perfectly
preserved stalls, at which some 300 oxen or
donkeys could be stabled. Farther up the road,
on the opposite side, just before reaching the
entrance to the town, there stands the bathhouse.
One first enters a good-sized hail in which
three small granite tanks stand. Here the bathers
no doubt washed themselves before entering the
Mons Claudianus. East end of the Temple.—Page 126.
^T:tlW^

The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 125
baths proper. From this silent hall two doorways
open. The first of these leads into a series of
three small rooms which were heated by furnaces
in the manner of a Turkish bath. These chambers
seem to have been heated to different degrees, for
under the floor of the innermost there is a large
cavity or cellar for the hot air, whereas in the
other rooms there are only pottery flues, which
pass down the walls behind the plaster. In one
chamber there is an arched recess, which seems
to have been made for ornamental purposes. The
second doorway from the hall leads into a fine
vaulted room, at the far end of which a plungebath,
some nine feet long and four or five feet
deep, is constructed of bricks and cement. Steps
lead down into it from the floor level, and in the
walls around there are ornamental niches in which
statuettes or vases may have stood. In this tank
the Roman officer was able to lie splashing after
his hot-air bath, and there is an appearance of
luxury about the place which suggests that he
could here almost believe himself in his own
country.
The enclosed town consists of a crowded mass
of small houses, intersected by a main street from
which several lanes branch to right and left. The
walls are all built of broken stones, and the door126
Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
ways are generally constructed of granite. Some
of the roofing is still intact, and is formed of thin
slabs of granite supported by rough pillars. One
wanders from street to street, picking a way here
and there over fallen walls ; now entering the
dark chambers of some almost perfectly preserved
house, now pausing to look through a street doorway
into the open court beyond. Large quantities
of broken pottery and blue glazed ware lie about,
but there did not seem to be many other antiquities
on the surface.
The temple lies outside the town on the hillside
to the north. A flight of ruined steps, some 25
feet in breadth between the balustrades, leads up
to a terrace, on which stands the broken altar,
inscribed as follows : “In the twelfth year of
the Emperor Nerva Trajan Csesar Augustus
Germanicus Dacicus ; by Sulpicius Simius, Prefect
of Egypt, this altar was made.” At the north end
of the terrace there is a granite portico, of which
the two elegant columns are now overthrown.
Through this one passes into a large four-pillared
hall, where there is another altar, upon which is
written : ” Annius Rufus ; Legate of the XVth
Legion ‘Appolinaris,’ superintending the marble
works of Mons Claudianus by the favour of the
Emperor Trajan.” From this hall the sanctuary
The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 127
and other important rooms lead. The walls in the
various parts of the building now only appear as
orderly piles of rough stones, but when they were
neatly covered with the salmon-coloured plaster,
which may be seen in the bath-house and elsewhere,
they must have been most imposing. Built
into one of the outer walls of the temple there is a
block of stone decorated with the well-known
Egyptian symbol of the disk and serpents ; and
this seems to be the only indication of Egyptian
influence in the place.
To the north-east of the town a great causeway
leads up to the main quarries, and half-way along
it lies a huge block of granite, abandoned for some
reason before it had been dragged down to the
depository below. Here at the foot of the causeway
lie several huge columns already trimmed,
and many smaller blocks left in the rough. Most
of these are numbered or otherwise marked, and
on one enormous block, hewn into the form of a
capital, there is written : ” The property of Caesar
Nerva Trajan.”
The well from which the inhabitants of Mons
Claudianus drew their water lies in a valley nearly
a mile from the town. It is enclosed within a
courtyard, and near it stands a round tower some
25 feet in height. From this tower to a point
128 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
about a quarter of a mile from the town there
runs an aqueduct along which the water was
evidently sent, the drop of 25 feet giving it the
necessary impetus. At the town end of the
aqueduct there is a building which contains a
large tank and a series of rooms something in
the nature of a small barrack. Here, no doubt,
lived the persons who had charge of the watersupply,
and it was probably their duty to see
that the tank was always full. Outside the
building there is a trough from which the animals
could drink. One imagines the quarryrnen or
their wives coming each day to the tank to fill
their amphorae with water, and the stablemen
leading down the mules or donkeys to the trough.
Here, as in the animal lines at the town, one is
struck with the disciplined system shown in the
arrangements, and it seems clear that the settlement
was under the immediate eyes of true
Romans, uninfluenced by the slovenliness of the
Orient.
I first saw these ruins in the red light of sunset,
and through the streets of the town I made my
way in the silence of nightfall. No words can
record the strangeness of wandering thus through
doorways unbarred since the days of Imperial
Rome, and through houses uninhabited for so many
Mens Claudianus. Doorway leading- from the hall of the Bath-house
into the room in which was the plunge – bath. Originally the
walls wTere plastered.—Page 125.
Mons Claudianus. Pedestal of the altar in the forecourt of the Temple.
The altar itself is seen broken in the foreground.—Page 126.
Pl. xxii.

The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 129
hundreds of years. It is difficult to describe the
sensations which a scene of this kind arouses. At
first the mind is filled with sheer amazement both
at the freshness, the newness of the buildings,
and at their similarity to those in use at the
present day. One cannot bring oneself to believe
that so many centuries have passed since human
eyes looked daily upon them or hands touched them.
But presently a door seems to open in the brain,
a screen slides back, and clearly one sees Time in
its true relation. A thousand years, two thousand
years, have the value of the merest drop of water
in an ocean. One’s hands may reach out and touch
the hands which built these houses, fashioned
these doorways, and planned these streets. This
town is not a relic of an age of miracles, when the
old gods walked the earth or sent their thunderbolts
from an unremote heaven ; but stone by
stone it was constructed by men in every way
identical with ourselves, whose brains have only
known the sights and sounds which we know,
altered in but a few details.
The fact that those far-off days are so identical
with those we live in does not, however, speak to
the mind of the changelessness of things, of the
constancy of human customs. That is a minor
thought. It tells rather of our misconception of
I
130 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
the nature of Time ; it shows how difficult it is to
judge the ages by the standard of human experience.
In looking at these almost unharmed relics
of a life which ceased before our remotest English
history had begun, one sees that their modern
appearance is not so much due to the persistence
of custom as it is to the shortness of time since
the town was built. Two thousand years is not a
period which we have the right to call long : it is
but an hour in the duration of man’s existence
upon earth. ” A thousand ages in thy sight are
like an evening gone,” runs the old hymn ; and
one feels that the ages since this town was built
must indeed be but an evening to One whose laws
of Decay and Change have not found time in them
to show more than a few signs of their working.
As one entered the temple in the twilight, and
aroused unaccustomed echoes in the silence of its
halls, the thought was that one had come rudely
to awaken the Past ; and, as the degenerate son of
a race that had outlived its miracles, to bring the
tidings that the gods were dead. But when the
newness, the freshness of parts of the buildings,
had opened the doors of the mind, the thought
was only that the gods were still living and
mighty who could think so lightly of twenty
long centuries.
The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 131
On the following morning I busied myself in
taking notes and photographs amongst the ruins
;
and somewhat before noon the camp was struck.
The road, now leading westwards towards Keneh,
passed for the main part of the ride along a wide
valley of great beauty ; and after trotting for
about three and a half hours we passed a small
ancient quarry of fine, small-grained, grey granite,
near which a few huts were grouped. Towards
sunset we crossed the brow of a hill, and so
descended into the Wady Fatireh, where we
camped near the well of that name. Here there
is a Roman station differing very slightly from
those already described. It lies about five and
a half hours’ trot from Mons Claudianus, and
was thus the first night’s halting -place for express
caravans on the road from that town to
Keneh.
As darkness fell I was sitting in the fortress
questioning the guide as to the road, when we
were both startled by the sound of falling stones,
and looking up we saw a large dog-like creature
disappearing over the wall. Examining the footprints
afterwards, one saw them to be the heavy
marks of a hyaena ; but no more was heard of him.
Hyaenas are by no means rare in the desert,
though it is not usual to find them so far back
132 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
from the Nile as this. In sleeping out in the
desert travellers warn one to be careful, for a
hyaena, they say, might snap at a foot protruding
from the blankets, just as a man might take a
biscuit from the sideboard ; but I do not recollect
hearing of anybody who has ever been attacked.
The ancient Egyptians used to eat hyaenas, and
the scenes in the early tombs show them being
fattened up in the farms. Men are seen flinging
the unfortunate creatures on their backs, their
legs being tied, while others force goose-flesh down
their throats. Probably the archaic hunter in the
desert ate hyaena-flesh for want of other meat,
and the custom took hold amongst the sporting
families of dynastic times ; for with proper feeding
there is no reason to suppose that the meat would
be objectionable. The old guide told me, as we
sat in the darkness, that there are several trappers
who make their living by snaring hyaenas, and
there is no part of the animal which has not a
marketable value. The skin has its obvious uses ;
the skull is sold as a charm, and brings luck to
any house under the threshold of which it is
buried ; the fat is roasted and eaten as a great
delicacy ; and the flesh is also used for eating, and
for medical purposes, certain parts being stewed
down and swallowed by women who desire to
Pl. xxiii

The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 133
produce a family in spite of Nature’s unwillingness.
In the neighbourhood of Fatireh we noticed
several rough workings in the rocks, near which
there were often a few ruined huts. These are
the remains of ancient gold mines, worked by the
Egyptians and the Romans. There are said to be
many old mines in this neighbourhood, and an
attempt has been made in recent years to reopen
some of them, though without much success. In
an inscription of Dynasty XVIII. (b.c. 1580-1350)
one reads of ” the gold of the desert behind
Koptos,” which city was situated on the Nile
a few miles south of Keneh ; and, although most
of the Koptos metal was obtained from the
region of Wady Fowakhieh, of which the reader
will have heard in a previous chapter, some of
the gold may have been mined in the Fatireh
neighbourhood at that date, as it certainly was
in Roman times. The subject is one of such
interest that I may be permitted to mention
here something of the methods of working the
gold employed by the ancient.
A full account is given by Diodorus, who obtained
his information from Agatharcides, of the
mines which are situated in the Eastern Desert
farther to the south ; and, as the methods were no
134 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
doubt similar in both districts, the information
enables one to reconstruct the scenes which these
hills of Fatireh looked down upon two thousand
years ago.
The persons who worked the mines were mainly
criminals and prisoners of war ; but with these
there were many unjustly accused men of good
breeding, and those who had by some political
action earned the Pharaoh’s or the Emperor’s
wrath. Frequently this class of prisoner was
banished to the mines, together with all the
members of his family, and these also were
obliged to labour for the king’s profit. No distinctions
were made at the mines between the
classes, but all suffered together, and all were
weighed down with fetters by night and by day.
There was little or no chance of escape, for sentries
were posted on every hill-top, and the soldiers were
ready to give chase through the waterless desert
should a man elude the watchman. These soldiers
were all of foreign extraction, and the chances
were heavy against their understanding the speech
of the prisoners ; and thus they were seldom able
to be bribed or introduced into a scheme of
escape.
The work was carried on day after day without
cessation, and always the labourers were under the
The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 135
eye of a merciless overseer, who showered blows
upon them at the slightest provocation. In order
to keep down the expenses, no clothes were provided
for the prisoners, and often they possessed
not a rag to hide their nakedness. Nor were they
allowed to give a moment’s time to the bathing
or care of their bodies. In good or in bad health
they were forced to work ; and neither the weakness
of extreme age, nor the fever of sickness, nor
the infirmities of women, were regarded as proper
cause for the idleness even of an hour. All alike
were obliged to labour, and were urged thereto by
many blows. Thus the end of a man who had
been banished to these mines was always the
same : fettered and unwashed, covered with bruises
and disfigured by pestilence, he dropped dead in
his chains under the lash of the relentless whip.
The sufferings of life were such that death was
hailed with joy, and it was the dying alone who
possessed a single thought of happiness.
Those who have seen the old workings on the
exposed face of the rocks, and have known the
coldness of the winter nights and the intense heat
of the summer days, will alone realise what
tortures these poor wretches must have suffered.
One might well think that the wind which went
moaning down the valley as we rode along the
136 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
path to the Nile still carried the groans of the
sufferers, and that the whispering rocks still
echoed the cries of utter despair. Looking at
the huts where these people lived and the mines
where they laboured, one could not regard the
record of their woe, which Diodorus makes known
to us, as a tale of long ago. Two thousand years,
one may repeat, is not really a period which we
should regard as long ; and while walls stand
upright and mines gape open, the sound of lamentation
will not be hushed in these valleys.
The rock from which the gold was obtained,
says Diodorus, was very hard ; but the miners
softened it by lighting fires under it, after which
it could almost be broken with the hands. When
it was thus prepared, thousands of prisoners were
set to breaking it with iron tools, while the
overseer directed their labours towards the veins
of gold. To the strongest of the men iron picks
were given, and with these, though wielded unskilfully
and with great labour, they were made
to attack the hillside. The galleries, following
the veins, twisted and turned, so that at the
depth of a few feet there was no glimmer of
daylight ; and for this reason the miners each
carried a small lamp bound to their forehead.
As the blocks of quartz were broken by the picks
The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 137
they were carried to the surface by the children
of the captives, who formed constant procession up
and down the dark galleries. These fragments
were then gathered up by youths and placed
in stone mortars, in which they were pounded
with iron pestles until the ore was broken into
pieces of the size of peas. The ore was then
handed over to women and old men, who placed
it in hand-mills, and thus ground it to powder.
This powder was then placed upon a sloping
surface, and a stream of water was poured over
it which carried away the particles of stone but
left the gold in position. This process of washing
was repeated several times, until all foreign matter
was eliminated and the gold dust became pure and
bright. Other workmen then took the dust, and,
after measuring it carefully, they poured it into
an earthenware crucible ; and having added a small
quantity of lead, tin, salt, and bran, they closed the
vessel with a tight-fitting lid, and placed it in a
furnace for the space of five days. At the end of
this time the crucible was set aside to cool, and on
removing the lid it was found to contain pure gold
ready to be dispatched to the Treasury.
To bear witness to the accuracy of this account
one sometimes finds mortars and hand-mills lying
amidst the ruins of the old mining settlements.
138 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
At the mines of Urn Garriat there are said to
be thousands of these mills, and here at Fatireh
not a few are to be found. Sluices for washing
the crushed ore have been observed in some of
the old workings ; and of the smelting crucibles
remnants exist at Um Garriat and elsewhere.
Practically nothing is known of the methods
employed by the Egyptians in earlier days, but
they cannot have differed very greatly from those
of the Roman period. There seems reason to suppose
that less cruelty existed in dynastic times
than in the days of the callous Romans ; and in
the following chapter an account will be given of
a temple, a well, and a town built by King Sety L
for the benefit of the persons who were engaged in
gold-mining.
The night spent at Fatireh was again bitterly
cold, and a violent wind necessitated a tussle with
tent-ropes and pegs : a form of exercise as annoying
in the daytime as any that exists, and in the
shivering night-time unspeakable. A couple of
hours’ riding next day brought us to the end of
the mountainous country and into the open desert.
For the first time for several days the sun streamed
down from a cloudless sky, but the strong north
wind continued to blow in full force ; and as we
trotted over the level plains we were half-blinded
Mons Claudianus. A large granite column lying- to the north-east
of the town. The back wall of the town is seen behind the
column, above which the Temple buildings are seen at the foot
of the granite hills.—Page 127.
Mons Claudianus. Large granite columns lying at the foot of
a quarry west of the town.—Page 127.
Pl. xxiv

The Quarries of Mons Claudianus. 139
by the stinging sand. The peaked hills behind us
rose from a sea of tearing sand, and before us in
the distance rose low, undulating clay mounds,
beyond which one could catch a glimpse of the
limestone cliffs so typical of the Nile valley. In
the afternoon we crossed these mounds and descended
into a very maze of hillocks, amidst which
we camped. Amongst these mounds we met a
couple of Bedwin, the purpose of whose presence
was entirely obscure. Our guide exchanged the
usual greetings with them, and then in a low
voice began to talk of the miserable dog which
trotted dejectedly behind his camel. Again he
pointed to his almost empty bag of food, and at
last dismounted, fastened a rope to the creature’s
neck, and handed it to the Bedwin. The usual
howls floated to us on the wind as we rode onwards,
but the high spirits of the guide at his
freedom from any further responsibility was a real
pleasure to witness.
Early in the following morning I visited the
Roman station of Greiyeh, which lies some seven
hours’ trot from Fatireh, and about six hours, or
rather more, from Keneb, and was thus the first
night’s halting -place out from the Nile, or the
second from Mons Claudianus. The station is, as
usual, a rectangular enclosure, in which several
140 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
rooms are constructed. Particularly well preserved
are the animal lines, which lie to the
west of the station. They consist of a courtyard
in which fourteen rows of stalls are built,
while down either side there has been a shed
with a roof supported by a row of pillars. Not
far away is the ancient well, enclosed in a small
compound.
This is the last of the Roman stations, and
having passed it, the ancient world seemed to
slip back out of one’s reach. The camels were
set at a hard trot over the now flat and burning
sand, and by noon the distant palms of Keneh
were in sight floating above the mirage. As the
houses of the town grew more and more distinct
in the dazzling sunlight, the practical concerns of
one’s work came hurrying to mind ; and in times
and trains, baggage and bustle, the quiet desert,
with its ghosts of Rome, faded away as fades some
wonderful dream when the sleeper wakes.
VI.
THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD.
The small shrine in the Eastern Desert, which I
have here called the Temple of Wady Abad, is
known to Egyptologists as the Temple of Redesiyeh,
although it is thirty-seven miles or more
from the village on the Nile, five miles above
Edfu, which bears that name. Redesiyeh seems
to have been the point from which Lepsius, the
German archaeologist, and other early travellers
set out to visit the desert shrine ; and hence the
name of this wholly unimportant village was given
to the ruin, and nobody has bothered to find one
more suitable. By the natives the building is
called El Kaneis, ” the Chapel ” ; and since it is
situated in the well-known Wady Abad, it would
seem most natural to call it the ” Chapel, or
Temple, of Wady Abad.” Modern prospectors
and mining engineers have been puzzled to know
what Redesiyeh has to do with the place ; and
the fact that an old German antiquarian half a
142 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
century ago collected his camels at that village
being wholly without significance to them, they
have regarded the word Redesiyeh as a probable
corruption of Rhodesia, and have spoken, to the
amazement and confusion of the uninitiate, of
the Temple of Rhodesia in the hills of the Upper
Egyptian Desert.
The shrine was built by King Sety I. (b.c. 1300),
the father of Rameses the Great, for the benefit
of the miners passing to and from the various
gold mines near the Red Sea ; and the story one
hears from the modern engineers, which vaguely
relates that the temple was erected by King
Ptolemy as a memorial to his son, who died at
this spot on his return from the mines, does not
require consideration. During the brilliant reign
of Sety I. the gold mines were energetically
worked, and the produce of those upon the road
to which this shrine was built was intended
especially for the upkeep and ornamentation of
the king’s great temple at Abydos, about 180
miles by river north of the Wady Abad. There
are so many old gold workings between the river
and the Red Sea that one cannot say definitely
where Sety’s miners were bound for who stopped
to offer a prayer to the gods at this wayside
shrine, but one may say certainly that Edfu, the
f-^
The Roman station of Abu Gehad. Some of the rooms as seen
from the court, looking- west.— Page 152.
Front view of the Temple of YVaclv Abad.—Page 155.
Pl. xxv

The Temple of Wady Abad. 143
old Apollinopolis Magna, and El Kab, the old
Eileithyiaspolis, were the cities from which they
set out. It will, perhaps, be best to state that
Edfu stands on the Nile about half-way between
Aswan and Luxor
—
i.e., about 520 miles above
Cairo—and that El Kab is situated some 10 miles
down-stream from Edfu. The Wady Abad enters
the desert exactly opposite Edfu; the shrine stands
about 35 miles east of that town ; and the Red
Sea coast is about 100 miles farther east as the
crow flies.
Towards the end of March 1908, when the hot
south winds were driving the tourists towards
the sea, and the trains from Luxor to Cairo were
full to overflowing, the writer and his wife set
out in the opposite direction, travelling southwards
in an empty train as far as the little wayside
station of Mahamid, the nearest stopping-place to
the ruins of El Kab. The camels which were to
carry us and our camp to Sety’s temple in the
desert were awaiting us upon the platform, surrounded
by an admiring throng of native loafers.
The caravan, according to orders which were ultimately
carried out, was to consist of ten baggage
and four riding camels, and an assortment of camelmen
under the leadership of a Shekh ; but more
than double that number of camels lay grunting
144 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
in the sunlight as the hot train panted into the
station. This was due to the fact that a rival
and more wealthy camel proprietor, who had not
been invited to do business on this occasion, had
sent a few camels to the rendezvous on the chance
of their being required, and this move the chosen
proprietor met by the doubling of the number of
his camels. The disappointed owner was himself
at the station, and eloquently dilated upon the
danger of trusting oneself to a Shekh of inferior
standing. In the infallible ‘Baedeker’ one reads
that for this journey it is necessary ” to secure the
protection of the Shekh of the Ababdeh tribes “
;
and though the edition in which these ominous
words appear is a few years out of date, one
realised in what a dilemma a traveller who did
not know the country might have found himself.
The Shekh, it appeared, had even telegraphed his
warning to me at the last moment ; but this having
been really the last of a short series of cards which
it seems that he had played, it did not require
many words to soothe matters into the normal
condition of hullabaloo which everywhere prevails
in Egypt at the departure of a caravan.
The baggage at last being dispatched southwards,
we set out towards the ruins of El Kab,
which could be seen shimmering in the heat- haze
The Temple of Wady Abad. 145
a few miles away. It was our purpose to ride to
Edfu, thence into the desert, and thence back to
Edfu and on to Aswan. The first ni^ht was to
be spent under the ruined walls of the ancient
city of Eileithyiaspolis, and it did not take long
to trot to the camping-ground by the river-side.
Here, in explanation of the route which we followed,
I must be permitted to enter into some
archaeological details in connection with El Kab
and Edfu.
In archaic days, when the great Hawk-chieftains
who glimmer, like pale stars, at the dawn of
history were consolidating their power in Upper
Egypt before conquering the whole Nile valley,
there stood a city on the west bank of the river,,
opposite El Kab, which in later times was known,
as Hieraconpolis, ” the city of the Hawks.” This;
was the earliest capital of Upper Egypt, and here
it is probable that the great king Mena, ” the
Fighter,” the first Pharaoh of a united Egypt, was
born and bred. This king and his father conquered
the whole of Egypt, and for that conquest a certain
amount of wealth was necessary, even in those
days when might was as good as money. For this
purpose, and for the reason that the arts of
civilisation were already in practice, the gold
mines of the Eastern Desert began to be worked,
K
146 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
This industry led to the establishment of a station
on the east bank of the river opposite the capital,
where the miners might foregather, and where the
caravans and their escort of soldiers might be
collected.
As larger deeds and wider actions became the
order of the Pharaoh’s day, so the mines were
extended and the number of workmen increased ;
and it was not long before the station at El Kab
grew into a city almost as large as the metropolis.
In Dynasty XII. (b.c. 2000) a wall was built
around it, which stands to this day, in order to
protect it from incursions from the desert. Gradually
great temples were erected here, and the city,
now known as Nekheb and later as Eileithyiaspolis,
was one of the busiest centres in the
world.
The ruins of the old caravanserai are of wonderful
interest. One may pass through the narrow
doorway of the fortified enclosure, and in the silent
area where once the soldiers and miners camped,
and where now a few goats graze, one feels completely
shut off from the world of the present day.
The dark walls rise around one almost to their full
height, and one may still ascend and descend the
sloping ramps where the sentries paced in the olden
days. Here there are the ruins of the temple
The Temple of Wady Abad. The east end of the Portico. The
square pillar was built in Grsco-Roman times to support the
broken architrave.—Page 155.
The Temple of Wady Abad. The east wall oi’ the Portico. The king
is seen smiting- a group of negroes.—Page 156.
Pl. xxvi.

The Temple of Wady Abad. 147
where the vulture-goddess was worshipped ; and
yonder one sees the mounds of potsherds, bricks,
corn-grinders, and all the debris of a forsaken town.
In the side of a hill which overlooks the great
ramparts one observes the long row of tombs in
which the princes of the district were buried ; and
here in the biographical inscriptions on the walls
one reads of many a feat of arms and many a brave
adventure.
The hills of the desert recede in a kind of bay
here, and if one walks eastwards from the town
one presently sees that there is, at the back of the
bay, an outlet through the range, five miles or so
from the river and the enclosure. It was through
this natural gateway, which the ancient Egyptians
called ” the Mouth of the Wilderness,” that the
caravans passed in early days into the great
desert ; and once through this doorway they were
immediately shut off from the green Nile valley
and all its busy life. There is a great isolated
rock which stands in the bay ; and in its shadow
the miners and soldiers were wont to offer their
last prayers to the gods of Egypt, often inscribing
their names upon the smooth surface of the stone.
Here one reads of priests, scribes, caravanconductors,
soldiers, superintendents of the gold
mines, and all manner of officials, who were
148 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
making the desert journey, or who had come to
see its starting-point.
In Dynasty XVIII. Amonhotep III. (b.c. 1400)
erected a graceful little temple here, to which one
may walk or ride out from El Kab over the level,
gravel-covered surface of the desert, and may
stand amazed at the freshness of the colouring of
the paintings on its wall. Another little shrine
was built, close by, a century and a half later
;
and in Ptolemaic times a third temple was constructed.
Thus one is surrounded by shrines as
one sets out over the hills away from this land
of shrines : it is as though the gods were loath to
leave one, and in solemn company came out to
speed the traveller on his way.
The road which the gold miners trod passed
through the hills, and then turned off towards the
south-east ; and presently it met the road which
started from Edfu, or rather from Contra Apollinopolis
Magna, which, as has been said, is ten
miles distant from El Kab. Edfu was also a city
of great antiquity, and was famous as the place
where at the dawn of Egyptian history the Hawktribes
overthrew the worshippers of Set, the god
who afterwards degenerated into Satan. The
great temple which now stands there, and which
The Temple of Wady Abad. 149
is the delight of thousands of visitors each winter,
was built upon the ruins of earlier temples where
the hawk of Edfu had been worshipped since the
beginning of things. The record of a tax levied
on Edfu in the reign of Thothmes III. (b.c. 1500)
shows that it was mainly paid in solid gold, instead
of in kind ; and one thus sees that the
precious metal was coming into the country at that
time along the Wady Abad route, as indeed it was
along all the great routes. Edfu was the main
starting-point for the mines in the days when
Sety I. built his temple, if one may judge from the
fact that the hawk-god of that city is one of the
chief deities worshipped in the shrine, while the
vulture-goddess of El Kab has only a secondary
place there ; and in Roman times the Edfu road
was perhaps the only one in general use.
This was the route which was selected for our
journey ; and after spending the night at El Kab,
we rode next morning along the east bank of the
river to a point at the mouth of the Wady Abad,
opposite the picturesque town of Edfu, where the
pylons shoot up to the blue sky and dominate the
cluster of brown houses and green trees. A morning
swim in the river, and a trot of somewhat over
two hours, was sufficient exercise for the first day
;
150 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
and the afternoon was spent in camp, while the
camelmen collected the food for the journey and
led their beasts down to the river to drink.
On the following morning, soon after daybreak,
we mounted our camels and set out over the hard
sand and gravel towards the sunrise. A fresh,
cool wind blew from the north, and the larks were
already singing their first songs, as we trotted up
the wady. The brisk morning air, the willing
camels, the setting out into the freedom of the
desert : how shall one record the charm of it ?
Only those who have travelled in the desert can
understand the joy of returning there : a joy
which, strangely enough, has only one equal, and
that the pleasure of returning to water, to flowers,
and to trees after a spell of some days or weeks
in the wilderness. Here there are no cares, for
there are no posts nor newspapers ; here there is
no fretfulness, for one is taking almost continual
exercise ; here there is no irritation, for man, the
arch-irritant, is absent ; here there is no debility
and fag, for one is drinking in renewed strength
from the strong conditions around. But ever
enthusiasm, that splendid jewel in the ring of
life, shines and glitters before one’s eyes ; and all
one’s actions assume a broader and a happier comThe
main entrance of the Roman station of Wady Abad, looking
west from inside the enclosure.— Page 164.
The piles of stone erected opposite the Temple of Wady Abad.—Page 164.
Pi..

The Temple of Wady Abad. 151
plexion. The desert is the breathing-space of the
world, and therein one truly breathes and lives.
A trot of about two hours brought us to the
well known as Bir AMd. The well is but a small,
stagnant pool of brackish water, around which a
few trees grow. There are six acacias, three or
four small palms, a curious dead-looking tree called
Heraz by the natives, and a few desert shrubs.
Some attempt has been made to cultivate a small
area, but this has not met with success, and the
native farmers have departed. The sand under
the acacias offers a welcome resting-place, and here
in the shade we sat for a while, listening to the
quiet shuffle of the wind amongst the trees and to
the singing of the sand-martins. While playing
idly with the sand an objectionable insect was
uncovered, which the natives call a “groundgazelle.”
It is a fat, maggot-like creature, about
an inch in length, possessing a pair of nippers
similar to those of an earwig. It runs fast upon
its six or eight legs, but, whenever possible, it
buries itself by wriggling backwards into the sand.
A more loathsome insect could not well be imagined
; and, since the species is said to be by no
means uncommon, one will not delve with the
fingers so readily in the future as one lies in the
152 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
shadow of the trees. A ride of about half an
hour’s duration along the valley and past a Shekh’s
tomb, known as Abu Gehad, brought us to the
rained Roman fortified station named after this
tomb. It is much like other stations of this date,
and consists of an enclosure in which a few chambers
are to be seen. One enters from the west,
and in the open area forming the courtyard there
is a cemented tank in which a supply of water was
stored for the use of travellers. The south wall of
the enclosure to this day looks formidable from the
outside, still standing some twelve feet in height,
and being solidly built of broken stones. On this
side of the station there are traces of an outbuilding,
which may have been the animal lines.
In the main enclosure a block of sandstone was
found bearing the cartouches of the Pharaoh
Tutankhamen (b.c. 1350), one of the successors of
the “heretic king” Akhnaton, and by its form it
seems to have been part of a shrine which perhaps
had stood at this spot. The road from El Kab
here joins the Edfu route, and the Pharaoh may
have marked the meeting of the ways by a little
wayside temple at which the gold miners might
offer a prayer to the gods of the wilderness.
In Roman days when this station was built it is
probable that the gold mines no longer formed the
The Temple of Wady Abad. 153
main objective of the caravans which passed along
this road. Emeralds, almost unknown to the
ancient Egyptians, were now deemed an ornamentation
of worth and beauty ; and the emerald
mines of Gebel Zabara, which are most easily
approached along this route, were vigorously
worked by the Romans. It was on his way to
these mines that Cailliaud in 1816 discovered
the temple of Sety I. There was also a road
from Edfu to the Grseco-Roman port of Berenice
on the Red Sea, which was much used at this
period ; and stations similar to that of Abu Gehad
are to be met with at fairly regular intervals for
the whole distance to the coast.
Trotting on for another two hours and a quarter,
we camped under the rocks of the Gebel Timsah, a
well – known landmark to travellers. A head of
rock projects into the level valley, and upon it the
people of the desert for untold generations have
set up small heaps of stones, the original idea of
which must have been connected with religious
worship. The two tents were no sooner pitched
than a gale of wind, suddenly rising, tore one of
them down, and almost succeeded in overthrowing
the other. A tempest of dust and sand beat in at
the doorway, and covered all things with a brown
layer, so that one knew not where to turn nor
154 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
how to escape. Fortunately, however, like all
things violent, it did not last for long ; and a
calm, starlit night followed.
The distance from Gebel Timsah to the temple
which was our destination may be covered in
about an hour and a half of trotting. We set
out soon after sunrise ; and presently a low ridge
was crossed, the path passing between two piles
or beacons of stones, set up perhaps in Roman
days to mark the road ; and from this point a
wide, flat valley could be seen, stretching between
the low hills, and much overgrown with bushes
and brambles. Over the plain we jogged in the
cool morning air, directing the camels to a high
bluif of rock in the east, in which, the guide
told us, the temple of Sety was excavated. Soon
a Roman fortress came into sight, and later we
were able to discern the portico of the temple
sheltering under the rocks. Slowly the features
became more distinct, and at last we dismounted
at the foot of the cliffs and scrambled up the
slope to explore the picturesque shrine.
It is strange that of the many Egyptologists
who have travelled in Egypt, only two, Lepsius
and GolenischefF, have visited this spot. It may
be that the statement of the old Baedeker, which
says that the wandering Ababdeh tribes ” assume
INSCRIPTIONS AND DRAWINGS IN AND NEAR
THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABAd.
i, 6, 7. North face of cliff, east of Temple.—Page 158.
2. Facade of Temple, east side.
3. Two examples of five similar inscriptions, on cliff east of
Temple.
4. On face of cliff just west of Temple.
5. Face of cliff, west of Temple.—Page 163.
8. On face of cliff just east of Temple.—Page 162.
9-14. Facade of Temple, west side.
15, 16. South-east pillar of Portico.
—
Drawings in red paint.
17. East wall of Portico.
—
Drawings i?i red paint.
Pl. xxviii.

t
^z^2^€*^
PF3
r
77
3
rgrn^
Pl. xxviii.

The Temple of Wady Abad. 155
a hostile attitude ” to travellers, has confined them
to the banks of the Nile ; or perhaps the reported
antics of the much-maligned camel have induced
them to leave unvisited this pearl of the past.
For that matter, however, the place might be
reached upon the back of the patient ass, there
being water at Bir Abad, and, for the last few
years, at the temple itself. When one sees this
building, one of the best preserved of all the
Egyptian temples, one is amazed at the lack of
enterprise which has caused it to be uncared
for, unprotected, and unvisited for all these years.
A few mining engineers and prospectors alone
have seen the shrine ; and, since they have disfigured
its walls with their names, one could wish
that they too had stayed at home.
The little temple consists of a rectangular hall
excavated in the rock, the roof being supposed
to be supported by four square pillars, though
in reality these also are part of the living rock.
At the far end there are three shrines in which
the statues of the gods are carved. In front of
this hall there is a built portico, the roof of
which rests upon four columns with lotus -bud
capitals. One enters from the north, up the
slope of fallen stones and driven sand, and so
passes into the shade of the portico. Through
156 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
a hole in the roof, where a slab of stone has
fallen in, one may look up at the towering rocks
which overhang the building. Then, through a
beautifully ornamented doorway, one passes into
the dimness of the rock-cut hall, where one may
be conscious that the whole height of the hill
rests above ones head. Both this hall and the
portico are richly decorated with coloured reliefs,
and in the inner portions of the temple one stands
in wonder at the brightness of the colours in
the scenes which are seen on all sides. It has
been said that the brilliancy of the painting in
the temple of Amonhotep III. at El Kab is surprising
; but here it is still fresher, and has even
more admirably held its own against the assaults
of time. We see the Pharaoh smiting down his
negro and Asiatic enemies in the presence of
Amen Ra and Horus of Edfu ; we watch him as
he makes offerings to the gods ; and to the ceiling
the eye is attracted by the great vultures with
spread wings which there hover above one, depicted
in radiant colours rendered more radiant
by contrast with the browns and the yellows
of the scenery outside. In the niches at the
end of the hall the gods sit in serenity ; and,
though these figures have been damaged almost
beyond recognition by pious Musslemans, there
ARCHAIC DRAWINGS OF SACRED BOATS ON ROCKS
NEAR TEMPLE OF WADY ABAD.
i, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9. North face of cliff, east of Temple.—Page 157.
3. Smaller of two large fallen rocks, east of Temple.—Page 157.
6, 7, 10. Larger of two fallen rocks, east of Temple.—Page 157.
Pl. xxix.

(-/Cjj
Pl. xxix.

The Temple of Wady Abad. 157
still clings around them their old majesty, and
still one may find something solemn in their
attitude, so that one almost pays heed to the
warning inscribed on the doorway that a man
must be twice purified before entering the little
sanctuary where they sit.
It may be asked why Sety selected this spot for
his temple, for, except that it lies on the route to
the mines, the reason for its location is not at once
apparent. The explanation, however, is not far to
seek. This great bluff of rock has a smooth clifflike
surface on its north side, and for the earliest
travellers, as for those of the present day, it has
cast a welcome shadow in which one might take
the midday siesta in comfort. Here, scratched or
chiselled on the rock, there are very many drawings
which undoubtedly date from archaic, and
even prehistoric, times. Numerous representations
of curious boats are seen, and their character
justifies one in supposing them to be the sacred
arks which formed in ancient times such an
essential part of Egyptian religious ceremonial.
In most of these vessels one sees the shrine which
contained the god, and in one drawing a figure
with flail raised, before which an animal is being
sacrificed, is certainly the god Min himself, the
patron of the desert. A few animals and figures
158 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts,
are also drawn, and when human beings are represented
in or near the arks their arms are shown
held aloft in the regular Egyptian attitude of
worship.
Thus it seems that, from being a place to rest
and to dream in, the rock had already in archaic
times become a sacred spot, at which early man
bowed himself down before the representations of
the ark of Min. From this period until Dynasty
XVIII. it seems, from the lack of inscriptions here,
that the mines were not much used. Amonhotep
III., however, sent his Viceroy of the South out
here, whose name, Merimes, is written upon the
rocks near the temple ; and his temple at El Kab,
at the beginning of the route, is a further indication
of his interest in the gold workings. Just
as this king had built his temple near the sacred
rock at ” the Mouth of the Wilderness,” so Sety I.,
following half a century later, decided to erect his
shrine at the foot of this more distant sacred rock,
the half distance having been already adventured
by the intermediate Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Since
the place was just about a day’s express ride from
Edfu and El Kab, its situation was convenient
;
and, moreover, there was no other head of rock
in the neighbourhood which offered so fine a
position for a rock temple.
The Temple of Wady Abad. 159
In the inscriptions near the mouth of the excavated
portion of the shrine, Sety caused to be
recorded the story of the building of the temple
;
and parts of this are of sufficient interest to be
quoted here :
—
In the year 9 (b.c. 1304), the third month of the third
season, the twentieth day. Lo ! his majesty inspected the
hill-country as far as the region of the mountains, for his
heart desired to see the mines from which the gold is
brought. Now when his majesty had gone out from the
Nile valley, he made a halt on the road, in order to take
counsel with his heart ; and he said, ” How evil is the way
without water ! It is so for a traveller whose mouth is
parched. How shall his throat be cooled, how shall he
quench his thirst ?—for the lowland is far away, and the
highland is vast. The thirsty man cries out to himself
against a fatal country. Make haste !—let me take counsel
of their needs. I will make for them a supply for preserving
them alive, so that they will thank God in my
name in after years.” Now, after his majesty had spoken
these words in his own heart, he coursed through the desert
seeking a place to make a water-station ; and lo ! the god
led him in order to grant the request which he desired.
Then were commanded quarrymen to dig a well upon the
desert, that he might sustain the fainting, and cool for him
the burning heat of summer. Then this place was built in
the great name of Sety, and the water flowed into it in very
great plenty. Said his majesty, “Behold, the god has
granted my petition, and he has brought to me water upon
the desert. Since the days of the gods the way has been
dangerous, but it has been made pleasant in my glorious
reign. Another good thought has come into my heart, at
160 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
command of the god, even the equipment of a town, in
whose midst shall be a settlement with a temple. I will
build a resting-place on this spot, in the great name of my
fathers the gods. May they grant that what I have
wrought shall abide, and that my memory shall prosper,
circulating through the hill-country.”
Then his majesty commanded that the leader of the
King’s workmen be commissioned, and with him the
quarrymen, that there should be made, by excavation in
the mountain, this temple. Now after the stronghold was
completed and adorned, and its paintings executed, his
majesty came to worship his fathers, all the gods j and he
said, ” Praise to you, great gods ! May ye favour me
forever, may ye establish my name eternally. As I have
been useful to you, as I have been watchful for the things
which ye desire, may ye speak to those who are still to
come, whether kings, princes, or people, that they may
establish for me my work in this place, on behalf of my
beautiful temple in Abydos.”
The last words tell us for what purpose this
route to the gold mines had been bettered. A
second long inscription is devoted to blessings on
those who keep up this shrine and the mines with
which it was connected, and to curses on those
who allow it to fall into neglect. A third inscription
is supposed to give the speech of the
travellers who have benefited by the king’s
thoughtfulness :
—
Never was the like of it (the temple and the well) made
by any king, save by the King Sety, the good shepherd,
The Temple of Wady Abad. 161
who preserves his soldiers alive, the father and mother of
all. Men say from mouth to mouth, ” Amen, give to him
eternity, double to him everlastingness ; for he has opened
for us the road to march on, when it was closed before us.
We proceed and are safe, we arrive and are preserved
alive. The difficult way which is in our memory has become
a good way. He has caused the mining of the gold
to be easy. He hath dug for water in the desert far from
men for the supply of every traveller who traverses the
highlands.”
Sety dedicated his temple to Amen Ha, whom he
identified with Min, the old god of the place, and
to Harmachis, the sun-god, whom he seems to have
identified with the hawk, Horus of Edfu. He alsohere
worshipped Ptah, the Egyptian Vulcan, and
his lion-headed consort Sekhmet ; Turn ; Hathory
the Egyptian Venus ; Nekheb, the vulture-goddess
of El Kab ; Osiris and Isis ; Mut, the mother goddess
; and Khonsu, the moon-god who was the son
of Amen Ha and Mut, and with them formed the
royal trinity at Thebes. All these gods one sees
upon the walls of the temple, and before them
Sety is shown offering incense, wine, flowers, and
food. Some inscriptions on the rocks near the
temple, written by high officials of this period who
visited the mines, make mention of two other
deities : Ea, the sun-god, and a strange goddess
who rides a horse and brandishes a shield and
spear,
L
162 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
When Sety died the temple was still not quite
finished, and for some reason or other which
we shall probably never know, it so remained.
His temple at Abydos, too, was neglected, and the
revenues ceased to be collected. Thus, in spite of
the curses inscribed on the walls of the desert
shrine, the king’s plans for the continual working
of the mines, in order to pay for the maintenance
of his great masterpiece, were not carried out. At
Abydos Ranieses II., in an inscription written a
few years later, states that he found the temple
of Sety there unfinished, and that it had not been
“completed according to the regulations for it of
the gold-house.” He, however, finished the building,
and perhaps re-established the gold workings
along the Wady Abad route, for on one of the
pillars of the hall of the desert shrine there is an
inscription written by an official which reads
:
” Bringing the gold for the festival in the temple
of Eameses II.”
Since that time until the present day the gods
in the sanctuary have looked out at a long stream
of travellers, soldiers, miners, and officials. Upon
the rocks and on the walls of the temple there are
several hieroglyphical and Greek inscriptions which
tell of the coming of all manner of people. A chief
of the custodians of El Kab here records his name,
archaic drawings of sacred boats, animals,
etc., on rocks near temple of wady
abAd.
J
5 4) 7-, 8, 9, ii, 12, 14. North face of cliff, east of Temple.
—
Page 157.
2, 3, 6, 10, 15, 16, 17. Larger of two fallen rocks, east of Temple.
—Page 157.
5. West face of cliff projection, east of Temple.— Page 157.
13. Smaller of two fallen rocks, east of Temple.—Page 157.
Pl. xxx.

Pl. xxx.

The Temple of Wady Abad. 163
and a scribe of the kings troops is immortalised
near by. Many of the Greek inscriptions are exvotos
dedicated to Pan, with whom the old Min
had been identified ; and as the latter was the god
of desert travel, so the sprightly Pan becomes the
sober patron of the roads. Miners from Syracuse
and from Crete tell of their advent ; and one
traveller describes himself as an Indian, a voyager,
perhaps, in one of those trading vessels which
brought to the port of Berenice the riches of the
East, to be conveyed across this great desert to the
markets of Alexandria. A man named Dorion
states that he had returned in safety from an
elephant hunt, probably in the south. Two inscriptions
are written by Jews, thanking God for
their safe journeys ; and it is interesting to notice
that one of them is called Theodotus, son of
Dorion, and the other Ptolemy, son of Dionysius
—
all pagan names. A troop of Greek soldiers have
recorded their names in the temple, and state that
they kept a watch before “Pan of the Good
Roads.”
These travellers, besides, or instead of, writing
their names, seem often to have piled a few stones
at conspicuous points as a memorial of their
passage. At various places in the neighbourhood,
and especially at the foot of the hills opposite
164 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
the temple, there are many such piles of stones
;
and when well built they rise from the rocks like
altars, three feet or so in height, and perhaps two
feet in diameter. In one or two cases there are
fragments of old Egyptian pottery lying beside
them, and there seems no question that they are
connected with religious worship. The same custom
still prevails amongst the desert people,
though now its significance is not remembered
;
and yet its meaning is not entirely forgotten, for
on a hill-top near the temple we found, near such a
pile of stones, three pairs of gazelle horns and a
collection of Red Sea shells pierced for stringing, a
modern offering to the old gods.
In Graeco-Roman times a large fortified station
was constructed near the temple, and this still
stands in fairly good preservation. It is built in
the plain in front of the temple, not more than a
hundred yards from the foot of the cliffs. The
enclosure is somewhat larger than is usual in these
stations, but the greater part of the area has never
been built upon. The enclosing wall still stands
to a height of ten feet or so in parts, but here and
there it is almost entirely ruined. It is built in
three thicknesses, so that on the inside there are
two heights at which one might walk around the
rampart without showing above it. One enters
The Temple of Wady Abad. 165
through a well-built masonry doorway, and on
either side one may see the hole into which the
beam was shot to close the wooden door at nights.
On one’s right there is a group of small chambers ;
and here an isolated house, in one wall of which a
window is still intact, forms the best-preserved
portion of the ruin. On one’s left there is a large
hall, in which there was a tank, parts of which,
now half-choked with sand, can be seen. The next
building on one’s left is also a hall of considerable
size—the common mess – room, probably, of the
travellers. One then passes into the open courtyard,
which bears off to the left, or north, and does
not contain more than a trace or so of walls.
Although one sees so many of these Roman
stations in the Eastern Desert, their charm and
interest never palls; and, more than any other
ancient buildings, they bring back the lost ages
and recall the forgotten activities of the old world.
These ruins, too, are always picturesque, and
gather to themselves at dawn and at sunset the
hues, the lights, and the shadows of the fairest
fancy. At dawn, at noon, at sunset—all day long
—this fortress in the Wady Abad is beautiful ; and
for those who love the desert there is here and in
its surroundings always some new thing to charm.
The walls of the enclosure, and beyond them the
1 66 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
pillared portico of the temple sheltering under the
rugged brown cliffs, form as delightful a picture
as may be found in Egypt. As one sits in the blue
shadow one may watch the black-and-white stonechats
fluttering from rock to rock, and overhead
there circles a vulture, as vividly coloured as those
which form the ceiling decoration in the temple.
The wide flat plain, shut in by the distant hills on
all sides, entices one from the fortress on to its
sparkling surface, though the tumbled rocks near
the temple soon call one back to their breezy
humps and shady nooks. The hundred surrounding
hill-tops vie with one another in the advertisement
of their merits, and one attains a summit but
to covet a further prospect. Or, attracted by the
two or three trees and the few bushes which grow
in the plain over against the fortress, one walks to
their welcoming shade ; and there one may listen
to the song of the sand-martins and to the strange,
long-drawn note of the finches.
11 A book of verses underneath the bough . . • .”
One knows now what the old philosopher desired
to express ; for the wilderness is indeed Paradise,
and here one may find the true happiness.
The day slips past in a half-dream of pleasure ,
and to the student of archaeology, who finds so
4 / X£Y~ /^C^rciTHNQHPAN ^;
^/CAirY
</
Greek inscription relating- to an elephant hunt, on a rock to the
east of the Temple of Wady Abad.—Page 163.
Scale of Metr 123456789 10
Sketch-plan of the Temple o\’ Wady Abad.
Pl. xxxi.

The Temple of Wady Abad. 167
much for his pencil to record and his mind to consider,
the hours race by at an absurd speed. The
two days which we spent here passed like an afternoon’s
dream, and the memories which remain in
the mind are almost too slight to record. Writing
here in the study one reconstructs the rugged
scene, and searches for the incidents which gave
gentle colour to it. There was a flight of cranes,
which sailed overhead, moving from south-east to
north-west, on their way to spend the summer in
Europe. Why should one’s memory recall so
charmedly the passage of a hundred birds ? There
was a hyaena which, in the red dusk, stood upon a
hill-top to watch us, and presently disappeared.
There were three vultures which rose from the
bones of a dead camel, soared into the sky, and
alighted again when we had passed. There came
a flock of goats and sheep at noonday to the well,
with much bleating and with the gentle patter of
many hoofs. The shepherd in his picturesque
rags eyed us curiously as his charges drank, and,
still watching us, passed down the wady towards
the west when they had quenched their thirst.
And so one’s memory wanders over the two days,
recalling the trivialities, and passing over the more
precise details of camp life and of work, until presently
one sees the tent struck and the baggage
1 68 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
bumping down the valley once more on the backs
of the grunting camels. The return journey to
Edfu was soon accomplished, and the accumulated
mail of five or six days which was in waiting at
the end of the ride quickly brought one back to
the business of life, and relegated the Wady Abad
to the store-chamber of happy recollections.
VII.
A NUBIAN HIGHWAY.
Opposite the town of Aswan, a short distance
below the First Cataract of the Nile, there rises
an island known to travellers by its Greek name
of Elephantine. The river sweeps down from the
cataract to east and west ; southwards one maywatch
it flowing around a dozen dark clumps of
granite rocks, which thrust themselves, as it were,
breathless above the water ; and northwards almost
without hindrance it passes between the hills and
palm-trees of the mainland. Nowadays should
one stand upon the mounds which mark the site
of the ancient city of Elephantine, and look east
and north, one would feel that modern civilisation
had hidden for ever the scenes of the past, and
had prevented the imagination from re-picturing
the place as it was in the elder days. The huge
Cataract Hotel overshadows the ruined city, and
stares down from its pinnacle of granite on to the
tumbled stones of ancient temples. On the island
170 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
itself, opposite this hotel, the elaborate and ultramodern
rest-house of the Ministry of Public Works
rises amidst its terraced gardens ; and farther to
the north stands the imposing Savoy Hotel, surrounded
by luxuriant trees and flowers unknown
to the ancient Egyptians. Eastwards the long,
neat promenade of Aswan edges the river, backed
by the Grand Hotel, the Government offices, and
other large buildings ; and at one end the noisy
railway station tells the insistent tale of the
Present. During the winter one may watch the
busy launches and small craft plying to and fro,
and may see the quality and fashion of Europe
amusing itself at either end of the passage ; while
at night the brilliant lights blaze into the waters
of the Nile from a thousand electric lamps, and
the sounds of the latest valse drift out through
open windows. The place is modern : one sips
one’s whisky -and -soda above the crushed- down
remains of Pharaonic splendours, plays tennis in
a garden laid out above the libraries of the
Ptolemies, and reads ‘ The Times ‘ where, maybe,
melancholy Juvenal wrote his Fifteenth Satire.
But should one turn now to the west and south
a different impression might be obtained. On the
island still stands the imposing gateway of the
rich temple destroyed for the sake of its buildingA
Nubian Highway. 171
stone in the days of Muhammed Ali ; and near
it, only recently, an archaeologist uncovered the
intact burial vault of the sacred rams of the Nilegod
Khnum. The rocky hills of the western mainland
tower above the island, great drifts of golden
sand carrying the eye from the summit to the
water’s edge ; and here, cut into the rocks, are
the tombs of the ancient princes of Elephantine.
In this direction there is almost nothing that is
more modern than the ruined monastery of St
Simeon, built at the head of a sandy valley in
the early days of Christianity, and destroyed by
the fierce brother of Saladin in 1173 a.d. With
one’s back to the hotels, and one’s face to these
changeless hills, the history of the old city is able
to be traced with something of the feeling of
reality to aid the thoughts.
One period of that history stands out clearly
and distinctly amidst the dim course of far-off
events. From being a stronghold of a savage
tribe the south end of the island had become
covered by the houses and streets of a fine city,
named Abu or ” Elephant – City ” (and hence
Elephantine), no doubt after the elephant symbol
of its chieftain. The feudal tendencies of the Yth
and Vlth Dynasties—about B.C. 2750 to 2475 —
had brought power and wealth to the local princes
172 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
in many parts of Egypt ; and here the family of
the chieftains of the island had begun to rise to
a degree of some importance. This was largely
due to the fact that to them was intrusted the
office of ” Keeper of the Door of the South,” and
the protecting of the Egyptian frontier at the
First Cataract from invasion by the negro tribes
beyond.
The city rose amidst its trees and rocks at the
foot of the cataract, at a point where in those days
the river still ran swift, and where the distant roar
of waters continuously drummed upon the ears.
On the eastern mainland opposite the island stood
the huts and hovels of the great ‘Swanu, or market,
which gave its name to the latter town of Aswan
;
and here the negroes, coming ‘ from the upper
reaches of the river by the valley road which
avoids the rocks of the cataract, met and traded
with the inhabitants of Elephantine. At the far
end of this road the barren islands of Philse, Bigeh,
and others were regarded as neutral ground, and
the rocks of the mainland were not yet forbidden
territory to the Egyptians for some miles upstream.
But beyond this the country was little
known, and those who penetrated into it took
their lives in their hands.
A Nubian Highway. 173
First there came the land of the Kau tribes ;
and then, farther to the south, the Wawat on the
east bank and the Sethu on the west dwelt in
barbaric independence. Still farther to the south
lived the warlike Mazoi, who might sometimes be
seen at the market, ostrich feathers in their hair
and bows and clubs in their hands. The land of
Arthet lay to the south again ; and lastly, not
much below the Second Cataract and the modern
Wady Haifa, there lived the almost unknown
people of Aam.
Who dwelt to the south of this the Egyptians
did not know. That territory was ” The Land of
the Ghosts ” : the perilous borders of the world,
and the misty ocean into which no man had penetrated,
were there to be encountered. To the
inhabitants of the brilliant little metropolis the
peoples of the upper river appeared to be a hazy
folk ; and the farther south their land the more
mysterious were their surroundings and the
ghostlier their ways. The negroes who came to
the market no doubt told stories then, as they
did in later times, of the great stature and the
marvellous longevity of those distant races ; and
though but a couple of hundred miles of winding
river separated the Egyptian frontier from that
174 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
of the land of Aam, that distance sufficed to
twist the thoughts of the market-gossiper from
the mortal to the immortal.
In archaic times an unknown Egyptian king
had penetrated some sixty miles up the river, and
had left a record on one of the rocks; 1 and King
Sneferu of the Illrd Dynasty had devastated a
part of the country. But from that time until
the beginning of the Vth Dynasty the land and
its people, left unmolested, had drifted once more
into the pale regions of mystery. As the nobles of
Elephantine grew in wealth and power, however,
their attention began to be turned with some
degree of fixidity towards the south ; and when
the energetic King Sahura came to the throne,
it was felt that the time had arrived for the
probing of the mystery.
The roads which led to the south along the
eastern bank of the river, and which were used
by the negroes near the frontier when coming to
the market, were not practicable for caravans
bound for distant goals ; and the Egyptians
1 The various rock-inscriptions of Lower Nubia mentioned in this
chapter were found during a tour which I made in that country in the
autumn of 1906, and are recorded in my ‘ Report on the Antiquities
of Lower Nubia and their Condition in 1906-7,’ published for the
Egyptian Government by the University Press, Oxford. The evidence
for the locating of the various tribes is also given there.
The Inscribed Rock, from the north-west. —Pages 181-183.
warn
The Inscribed Rock, from the south-west.
Pl. xxxii.

A Nubian Highway. 175
turned their eyes, therefore, to the western hills,
behind which the sorrowful lands of the Dead
were somewhere situated. Almost exactly opposite
the city lay a sand-covered valley, in which
now stands the ruined monastery mentioned
above. From the island a boat carried one across
to the little reedy bay, from whence a trudge of
half a mile or so over the soft sand brought one
on to the upper levels of the desert. Looking
towards the north, the road which led eventually
to Lower Egypt was to be seen ; to the west the
eye wandered over the undulating wilderness to
the far horizon, made awful by the presence of
the Dead ; and to the south the sand-drifts and
the rocky hillocks hid the untravelled paths to
Aam and the Land of the Ghosts. Keeping the
river on the left hand, it seemed to the Egyptians
that they might here pass over the upper desert
as far as the gods permitted men to penetrate
;
and a descent to the Nile at any convenient point
would bring them, like a bolt from heaven, upon
the tribes there settled.
The army of Sahura—perhaps a thousand men
with numerous baggage-donkeys—set out along
this road, and after a march of a few days as
nearly straight ahead as possible, struck the river
(which bends towards the west) at a point in the
176 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
land of Arthet, now known as Tomas. A tribute
was no doubt collected from the rich fields which
there border the Nile ; an inscription recording
the name of one of the captains was cut upon a
convenient face of rock ; and the army returned to
Egypt to publish its heroism in the streets of
Elephantine. Another expedition in the reign
of King Asesa followed after a few years, the
event being again recorded on the rocks. Farther
than Arthet, however, these armed forces did not
venture to go ; nor was this Nubian highroad
used with great frequency during the following
years.
About the year 2500 B.C. a prince of Elephantine
named Herkhuf made up his mind to penetrate
farther towards the mysterious lands of the south.
It is forty-four centuries since he set out over the
desert, with the wind whistling past his ears and
the powerful sun warming his bones and his heart
within him ; yet the story of his adventures may
still be read, the path by which he travelled may
still be discerned, and the names of his captains
may still be seen on the rocks of the land of
Arthet. Herkhuf, having obtained the necessary
order from the Pharaoh, set out with his father
Ara, ” in order,” as he says, ” to explore a road to
the country of Aam.” The road which he explored
A Nubian Highway. 177
and opened up was probably a continuation of the
route from Elephantine to Arthet, passing not far
back from the river, and descending to the water
between Abu Simbel and Wady Haifa in the heart
of the land of Aam. The expedition was entirely
successful, and Herkhuf states tbat he was ” very
greatly praised for it.” Emboldened by the fame
which his enterprise had brought him, he made
a second expedition to Aam, and was gone
from Egypt eight months. A third excursion
was more adventurous. Herkhuf set out upon
the ” Oasis-road,” which runs from a point north
of Aswan to Kurkur Oasis, and thence branches
to Tomas or Arthet and to the Oasis of Khargeh
which lies westward, and which in those days was
inhabited by Libyan tribes. At the Kurkur junction
Herkhuf met with an army, under the leadership
of the Prince of Aam, which was on its way
to chastise these Libyans ; but how the wily
Egyptian contrived to use it instead as an escort
to his own men back to Aam, and how he returned
to Egypt through the hostile territory of Sethu,
Arthet, and Wawat, with three hundred asses
laden with the presents of his host, are tales too
long to narrate here.
One story only may be recorded in this chapter.
During a fourth expedition to Aam, Herkhuf had
M
178 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
managed to obtain one of the dwarfs or pigmies
who inhabited a region of the Land of the Ghosts.
He at once informed the king, now the boy
Pepy II. ; and in reply he received the following
letter, which is, perhaps, the earliest example
in the world’s history of a private communication
:
—
” I have noted,” writes the King, ” the matter of your
letter which you have sent to me, in order that I might
know that you have returned in safety from Aam, with the
army which was with you. . . . You say in your letter that
you have brought a dancing pigmy of the god from the Land
of the Ghosts, like the pigmy which the Treasurer Baurded
brought from the Land of Fount in the time of Asesa. You
say to my majesty, ‘Never before has one like him been
brought by any one who has visited Aam.’ . . . Come
northward, therefore, to the court immediately, and bring
this pigmy with you, which you must bring living, prosperous,
and healthy, from the Land of the Ghosts, to dance
for the King and to rejoice and gladden the heart of the
King. When he goes down with you into the vessel,
appoint trustworthy people to be beside him at either side
of the vessel : take care that he does not fall into the water.
When he sleeps at night, appoint trustworthy people who
shall sleep beside him in his cabin ; and make an inspection
ten times each night. My majesty desires to see this pigmy
more than the gifts of Sinai and of Pount. If you arrive
at court, the pigmy being with you, alive, prosperous, and
healthy, my majesty will do for you a greater thing than
that which was done for the Treasurer Baurded in the time
of Asesa, according to the heart’s desire of my majesty to
A Nubian Highway. 179
see this pigmy. Orders have been sent to the chief of the
New Towns to arrange that food shall be taken from
every store-city and every temple (on the road) without
stintingo.*”
How easy it is to picture the excited boy awaiting
the arrival of this wonder from the south, or
to watch in the imagination the long caravan as it
winds its way over the western hills from Aam to
Elephantine, where Herkhuf and his prize will take
ship to Memphis.
Later in the reign of Pepy II. the tribes of
Arthet and Wawat revolted, and the Nubian highroad
echoed with the songs of Egyptian soldiers.
The commander of the expedition, named Pepynakht,
slew a large number of the unfortunate
negroes, took many prisoners, and collected a great
quantity of plunder. It was perhaps during this
disturbance that a certain prince of Elephantine,
named Mekhu, was murdered in Arthet. News of
his death was brought to his son Sabna by a ship’s
captain who had himself escaped. Sabna immediately
collected a few soldiers and a hundred
baggage -donkeys, bearing presents of honey, oil,
ointment, and fine linen, and set out upon the
same highroad towards Arthet. By the judicious
use of his oil and honey he was able to discover
the body of his father ; and, loading it upon a
180 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
donkey, he commenced the return journey. Before
he was clear of Arthet, however, he found it
necessary to avert an attack by presenting a
sullen negro chieftain with an elephant’s tusk
three cubits in length, at the same time hinting
that his best tusk was six cubits in length. But
how the expedition arrived safely at Elephantine,
and how Sabna buried his father there in the
western hills behind the modern Savoy Hotel,
and how he was rewarded by the king for his
really plucky undertaking, cannot be here related
at length.
There was now no more mystery about the
country on this side of the Second Cataract, and
by the perseverance of these princes of Elephantine
the way was made ready for the conquest of the
Sudan, which the Egyptians commenced in the
XHth Dynasty and completed in the XVIIIth.
We of the present day cannot, perhaps, appreciate
how much pluck and obstinacy these nobles required
in the undertaking of these expeditions.
Not only were they penetrating into lands which
were inhabited by the most savage tribes, but they
believed these tribes to be endowed with superhuman
powers. From childhood they had heard
stories of their magical power ; while in pushing
their way into the distant land of Aam they
A Nubian Highway. 181
assuredly expected to encounter those ghosts who
hovered at the edge of the world. Their caravan
routes over the western hills ran dangerously near
the terrible territory of the Dead ; and, to their
superstitious minds, their daily marches and their
nightly camps were beset by monsters and by
bogies compared to which the fierce Mazoi were
as nought.
The reader who finds interest in the picture of
Herkhuf exploring the roads of Aam, and of Sabna
searching for his father’s body in hostile Arthet,
will ask whether any definite traces of the highroad
still remain. One would have thought that
after four thousand four hundred years it would
have utterly disappeared ; but this is not the case.
Let the visitor to Aswan step out some afternoon
from the hall of his hotel, where the string band
throbs in his ears and the latest Parisian gowns
shimmer before his eyes, and let him take boat
to the little western bay behind the ruins of
Elephantine. Here in the late afternoon the long
blue shadows fall, and he may walk in coolness
over the sand towards the monastery which stands
on the higher ground before him. At the top of
the hills to his left he will presently see, some
distance away, a large isolated boulder near the
tomb of some old Mussleman saint ; and making
1 82 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
his way up the hillside towards this boulder, he
will suddenly come upon a paved causeway x which
sweeps up over the sand to the rocky summit.
Bough flat blocks of sandstone form the paving,
and these are only here and there overwhelmed
by the drifting sand, though it is evident that the
road has been entirely buried at the point where
it approaches the water.
Mounting to the hill-top, the causeway is seen
to pass within a few yards of the great boulder
which one now finds to have been surrounded
by a rough wall, as though to form a kind of
sanctuary or chapel. On the sides of the rock
there are several inscriptions recording the coming
of various officials of the Empire—tax-collectors,
superintendents of the Nubian gold mines, and
so on. It is evident from this that the road
was used for many a long year after Herkhuf
and Sabna had done with it ; though now it
possessed for the travellers no terrors, nor did it
lead any more to the Land of the Ghosts.
At the point where the causeway passes the
boulder the hard surface of the upper desert
literally bristles with countless little heaps of
stones, each consisting of a small, upright slab
1 I can hardly suppose that I am the first to observe this road, and
yet I can find no reference to it in any publication.
A Nubian Highway. 183
of rock, held in place by two or three others.
Fragments of pottery indicate that a bowl, perhaps
containing water, had been placed beside each
pile. Here, then, are the memorials of the travellers
who set out for distant Arthet from the fair
city on the island, which may from here be seen
floating in the blue waters of the Nile below.
These stones are the prayers of those who asked
a prosperous journey from the gods of their city
:
from the old ram-headed Khnum who lived in the
dark caverns below the Nile ; from Satet, the
horned goddess whose bow and arrows were the
terror of her enemies ; and from Anuket with the
crown of lofty feathers. For a short distance one
may follow the paved road now, as it passes southwards
and westwards amidst the blackened rocks
and golden sand-drifts of this lifeless land ; but
presently it tops a deeply shadowed ridge of rock
and sand, and so descends into, and is lost amidst,
the wide, undulating desert, ablaze with the light
of the setting sun.
There are not many persons who will find themselves
able to follow the road by camel, as I did,
or to take ship up the Nile, to Arthet, in order to
see the terminus of the first part of the highway.
The road descends to the river behind the rich
fields of the straggling village of Tomas, near Derr,
184 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
the present capital of Lower Nubia. The scenery
here is beautiful in the extreme. A short distance
down-stream a bluff of rock, projecting to
the water’s edge, and half-covered with drift-sand,
marks the probable boundary between Arthet and
Sethu. One might slide here from the top of the
bluff down the golden slopes to the verdant thornbushes
wThich dip towards the river, and from
either side of the track one’s figure would be seen
sharply against the deep blue of the sky. Sliding,
one would see on the left the rocks and the sand
of Sethu, and distantly the superb array of the
mountains of Wawat ; while on the right the green
bay into which the road descended would lie spread
as a feast to the eye. Farther up-stream a wooded
island lies in the Nile, whither the inhabitants
must often have fled at the approach of the
Egyptians from the desert.
On the low cliffs which form the backing of this
bay many a captain of an expedition or master of
a caravan has written his name, and sometimes a
date has been added. ” The Superintendent of all
the caravan- conductors of the Land of the South :
Sabna “
;
” the Captain of the Soldiers : Akab “
;
” the Captain of the ships of Asesa : Khnumhotep
“
;
” the sixth year : written by the Captain
of the soldiers . . .” ; these are examples of the
The Elephantine Road, looking- along- it towards Aswan.—Page 182.
.-.,’review
of the islands in the river, &c, from near the
Inscribed Rock at the head of the Elephantine Road.
Pl. xxxiii.

A Nubian Highway. 185
inscriptions which were here cut into the surface
of the rock, and which to the archaeologist are
of the first importance. A caravan -conductor
named Ara, who is probably to be identified with
the father of Herkhuf, has left his name here ; and
more than one Sabna occurs. But perhaps the
most interesting of these records are three short
inscriptions which tell of an expedition to Arthet
under the almost unknown Pharaoh Hornefersa,
who probably reigned about B.C. 2400. It is in
one of these inscriptions that the name of this
country—Arthet—is given, thereby making it
possible definitely to locate the territory of these
people, and to identify this highway without
any further question with the ” Elephantine road “
referred to in the inscriptions as leading from
Elephantine to Arthet.
Above these rocks one steps on to the hard
surface of the desert, and the eye may travel over
the broken ground to the north for many a mile,
and may follow the road by which Herkhuf carried
home his pigmy, and Sabna his fathers body, until
the brown rocks meet the blue sky. To the southwest
the second portion of the highway, leading on
to Aam, may be followed ; but the point at whicli
it descends again to the river has not been identified
though one may safely say that the terminus,
1 86 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
lay between Abu Simbel and the Second Cataract.
Here the country has a different aspect. On the
west bank of the Nile the sand lies thickly, and
humps itself into low hillocks covered with scrub.
Between these one may walk in the cool shade of
groves of sunt and tamarisk, where flocks of goats
stand dreaming on the pathway and birds sing
overhead. On the east bank isolated hills of sandstone
rise suddenly from the plain, and are reflected
in the river as in a flawless mirror. The land of
Aam is as beautiful as that of Arthet, though
altogether different in character.
The later history of the highway cannot be
traced in much detail. From the Vllth to the
Xllth Dynasties the Egyptian Government was
seldom strong enough at home to attempt to look
after affairs abroad, and Lower Nubia relapsed
into a state of independence. Amonemhat, the
founder of the Xllth Dynasty, about 2000 B.C.,
was thus obliged to reconquer the country ; but
his expedition seems to have travelled up the Nile
and not across the desert. A few reigns later a
fortress was built at the modern Anaybeh, in the
land of Arthet, a few miles above the terminus
of the highway from Elephantine ; and the road
must now have been used continuously as the
express route from the city to the fortress. This
A Nubian Highway. 187
stronghold is so much ruined and sand- covered
that it has escaped observation up till now, although
its position had been ascertained from
inscriptions. Mention is made of a fortress
named Taray, and its distance from a certain
known place is given, which exactly locates it
at Anaybeh. At about the same date a large
fortress was built on the west bank at the
Second Cataract, and at the extreme north end
of the highroad the walls of Elephantine were
now strengthened.
Above the Second Cataract lay the land of
Kush, and as civilisation advanced southwards
the territory of the Ghosts had perforce to retreat
before it. The Egyptians now knew that
very human negroes inhabited the country beyond
Aam ; but they could still ask themselves
in whispers what manner of bogies dwelt to the
south of Kush. While the immortals were falling
back, however, the mortals from above the Second
Cataract were surely pushing forward. The people
of Aam were slowly being displaced by them, and
in consequence were hustling the tribes of Arthet.
During the reign of Senusert III. (1887 B.C.) the
incursions of the negroes of Kush assumed the
proportions of an invasion, and the Egyptians
were obliged to wag© an expensive and lengthy
1 88 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
war upon them. When at last they were driven
back beyond the Second Cataract, the Pharaoh
set up a boundary -stone there; and the words
which he ordered to be inscribed upon it show
plainly enough what a surprise it was to him to
find that his enemies had possessed none of those
superhuman powers which his subjects had attributed
to them.
u Why,” he says, ” they are not a mighty people after all
;
they are poor and broken in heart. My majesty has seen
them ; it is not an untruth. I captured their women, I
carried off their subjects, went forth to their wells, smote
their bulls. I reaped their grain, and set fire thereto. I
swear as my father lives for me I speak in truth, without a
lie therein coming out of my mouth.”
The last sentence tells of the king’s fear lest
tradition should conquer proven fact, and his
soldiers should endow the negroes of Kush with
those mysterious powers of which their close
proximity to the Land of the Ghosts and the
end of the world gave them the use.
During the XVIIIth Dynasty (1580-1350 B.C.)
the highroad was used continuously both by the
troops which were being launched against the
Sudan, and by the officials who came to collect
the taxes or to administer the laws. Great
changes had taken place since the old days,
A Nubian Highway. 189
The Land of the Ghosts had disappeared almost
entirely from the geography, though still it might
exist somewhere above Khartum. The people of
Aam, now more correctly called Emaam, had entirely
absorbed Arthet, and Sethu had fallen to
the share of Wawat. Persons travelling by the
highroad, and descending to the river at Tomas
or near the Second Cataract, Egypt desert safari found themselves in
the sphere of influence of Emaam at either place.
One obtains some idea of the inhabitants of this
once mysterious land from a painting in the tomb
of Huy, the viceroy of the south, at Thebes. Here
one sees a procession of negro princes who have
come to do homage to the Pharaoh’s representative.
They have evidently travelled by the highroad, for
the Prince of Emaam rides in a heavy chariot
drawn by two bulls, while his retinue walk behind
him. A prince of Wawat is also shown;
while the chieftains of Kush are there in numbers,
bringing with them the produce of their country.
Their clothes are more or less Egyptian in style,
and their wealth in gold is such as an Egyptian’s
eyes might stare at. In this sober, prosperous
company one looks in vain for a sign of that
savage ferocity which made them the terror of
Elephantine.
In the XlXth Dynasty (1350-1205 B.C.), when
190 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
the armies of Rameses the Great and his successors
passed up to the wars in the Sudan, the
Elephantine road must have been one of the main
routes of communication. The name of Rameses
the Great is writ large upon the rocks of Tomas,
in contrast to the modest little records of those
infinitely greater men of the early days. Not so
long afterwards it was the people of the Sudan
who were using the road to march on Egypt, and
soon the Egyptians were obliged to bow the knee
to a negro Pharaoh. Later, when they were once
more the masters of their own affairs, the taxgatherers
returned to Emaam, and the names of
some have been left on the road.
At this time Elephantine had become a city of
considerable wealth and importance. Splendid
temples rose amidst the houses and the trees,
and fortified walls around the south end of the
island frowned down upon the swift river. Priests,
soldiers, and nobles walked the streets amongst
the throng of the townspeople, or sailed to and
fro over the broken waters. At the foot of the
western hills, the bay from which the Nubian
highway ran must have often been the scene of
the busy loading and unloading of pack-donkeys
the habitations of present-day men.
III.
THE RED SEA HIGHROAD.
In the reach of the Nile between Quft and Keneh,
a few miles below Luxor, the river makes its
nearest approach to the Red Sea, not more than
110 miles of desert separating the two waters at
this point. From Quft, the ancient Koptos, to
Kossair, the little seaport town, there runs the
great highroad of ancient days, along which the
Egyptians travelled who were engaged in the
Eastern trade. It happened by chance that this
route led through the Wady FowTakhieh in which
the famous quarries were situated ; and in the
last chapter I have recorded an expedition made
to that place in 1907. From the quarries I set
out with my three friends for the sea ; and, as the
route from the Nile to Wady Fowakhieh has already
been described, it now remains to record its
continuation eastwards and our journeying upon it.
The history of this highroad is of considerable
interest, for it may be said to be the most ancient
The Red Sea Highroad. 57
of the routes of which the past has left us any
record ; and its hard surface has been beaten down
by the fall of feet almost continuously from the
dawn of human things to the present day. It has
been thought by some that a large element of the
prehistoric inhabitants of the Nile valley came
into Egypt by this road. Excavations at Quft
(Koptos) have shown the city to date from
Dynasty I., if not earlier; and the great archaic
statues of Min, the god of the desert, one of which
is to be seen at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford,
were here found. The ancient Egyptians always
believed that the home of their ancestors was in
the land of Pount, the region around Suakin ; and
since so many archaic remains have been found at
Koptos, the terminus of a route which in historical
times was sometimes used by persons travelling to
Pount, it seems not unlikely that there was a
certain infiltration of Pountites into Egypt by way
of Kossair and Quft. These people travelling in
ships along the coast, Arabians sailing from the
eastern shores of the Red Sea, or Bedwin journeying
by land from Sinai and Suez, may have passed
over this road to trade with the inhabitants of
Upper Egypt ; but, on the other hand, there is no
evidence to show that any extensive immigration
or invasion took place. The coast of the Red Sea
58 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
is utterly barren, and the wells are few in number
;
and one could more readily imagine the prehistoric
inhabitants of Egypt pushing eastwards on hunting
expeditions until they encountered the sea, and
thus opening up the route, than one could picture
these Eastern peoples penetrating from an untenable
base to a hostile country at the dawn of
known days.
Upon the archaic statues of the god Min at
Koptos there are many rude drawings scratched
on the stone surface. These represent pteroceras
shells, the saws of sawfish, a stag’s head, the forepart
of an elephant, a hyaena, a young bull, an
ostrich, and a flying bird. It is evident that these
drawings would not have been scratched upon the
statue of the tribal god without some sort of meaning
being attached to them, and it seems probable
that one may see in them the articles of commerce
which the people of Koptos imported from
the Red Sea : shells, horn, ivory, feathers, and
skins.
The earliest written record of a journey to
Kossair dates from Dynasty XL, B.C. 2020, when
an official named Henu travelled from Koptos to
Kossair, and thence to Pount. ” The king sent
me,” says Henu, ” to dispatch a ship to Pount
to bring for him the fresh myrrh from the chieftains
The Red Sea Highroad. 59
of the desert which had been offered to him by
reason of the fear of him in those countries. Then
I went forth from Koptos upon the road as his
Majesty commanded me. Troops cleared the way
before me, overthrowing those hostile to the king;
and the hunters and the children of the desert
were posted as the protection of my limbs. . . .
Then I reached the Red Sea, and I built this ship,
and I dispatched it with everything, after I had
made for it a great oblation of cattle, bulls, and
ibexes.” Henu, no doubt, carried the material for
building the vessel across the Egypt desert safari , and settled
down on the coast to build it, his supplies being
sent to him from Koptos as often as necessary.
He tells us in another part of the inscription that
he dug several wells in the desert ; and one can
imagine his little company living quite happily
beside one of these wells near the seashore while the
vessel was hammered together on the beach below.
After the lapse of four thousands of years one may
still picture these scenes : the launching of the
ship into the blue waters, when the savour of
burnt -offerings streamed up to heaven, and the
shouts of the workmen rang across the sandy
beach ; the tedious journey along the barren coast,
always the yellow hills upon one’s right and always
the boundless sea upon one’s left ; the landing on
60 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
the strange shores of Pount, where the precious
myrrh-trees abundantly grew and there was talk
of gold as of a thing of little worth ; where sleek,
bearded men and amazingly fat women sat at the
doors of bee-hive huts raised from the ground upon
piles ; and where, walking abroad, one might meet
with giraffes and other surprising creatures whose
existence would not be credited by one’s friends at
home. An Englishman feels that it would almost
have been worth the four thousand years of subsequent
oblivion to have seen what these adventurers
saw !
During the next twenty centuries the road
seems to have been in almost continual use, but
there are no interesting inscriptions recording
expeditions made along it, though one may be
sure that many of the trading expeditions passed
over this route to the land of Pount. The town
of Kossair seems to have been called Thaau at
this period, but in Grseco-Roman days this name
has developed into Tuau or Duau, a word written
in hieroglyphs simply with three stars. The
trade with Arabia and India which flourished
during the rule of the Ptolemies brought the road
into very general use, and Kossair became as
important a trading town as any in Egypt. The
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, Wady
Fowakhieh.—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.
egypt desert safari
and at this time there may have been a masonry
A Nubian Highway. 191
landing-stage at the river’s edge to terminate
worthily the paved causeway.
Then came the Greeks and the Romans, and
one may picture perspiring legionaries hastening
along the highroad to join Petronius in his chase
of the one-eyed queen Candace and her flying
Ethiopians. One may see the agents of Shemsed-
Dulah, the brother of Saladin, passing along
to rout out Christianity from Nubia ; and presently
come the barbaric Mamelukes, driven before
the armies of Ibrahim Pasha. The last great
scene in the long history of this most ancient
highroad was enacted a score of years ago.
The Dervishes,—the modern inhabitants of the
Land of the Ghosts,—marching on Egypt from
the Sudan, picked up the road at the Second
Cataract, at its early terminus, and headed towards
Tomas. An English force, travelling southwards,
met and utterly defeated them some seven
miles back from the river, behind the village of
Toshkeh, not far from Abu Simbel. And if one
journeys direct from the ancient land of Arthet
to the land of Aam, the bones of the dead and
the debris of their camp will be found strewn to
right and left over the surface of the highway.
Travelling in Egypt one sees so many remains
192 Travels in Upper Egyptian Deserts.
of the solemn religious ceremonies of the ancient
Egyptians, and reading at home one meets with
so many representations of the sacred rites, that
it is a real relief to come across some relic, such
as this highroad, of human energy and toil. In
the courts of the temples one has pictured the
processions of the priests and the kneeling throng
of the people. One has heard in the imagination
the rhythmic chants, has smelt the heavy incense,
and has seen the smoke of the sacrifice rising to
the roof. Glum Pharaohs have stalked across the
picture, raising their stiff hands to the dull gods
;
and rows of bedraggled prisoners have been led
to the sanctuary, roped in impossible contortions.
One has visited, or has read of, a thousand tombs ;
and the slow funerals have passed before one in
depressing array. But here on this highroad over
the western hills, where the north wind blows free
and the kites circle and call above one, where there
comes vigour into the limbs and ambition into the
heart, these relics of old adventures appeal with
wonderful force. Here there are no mysteries
except the mystery of the land to the south, and
there are no prayers save the asking of a successful
journey, and the piling of four stones to the
honour of the gods. One does not pace through
holy places whispering ” How weird !
” but stick
A Nubian Highway. 193
in hand, and whistling a tune down the wind, one
follows in the footsteps of the bold caravan-masters
of the past ; and one thanks them from the bottom
of one’s heart for having played a man’s part on
their page of the world’s history to serve for all
time as an example. When the amusements of
the luxurious hotels have given out, and the
solemnity of the ancient ruins has begun to pall,
the spirits of Herkhuf and of Sabna, of the captains
and the caravan-conductors, are always to
be found waiting on the breezy hill-tops behind
the island of Elephantine, at the head of the
Nubian highway.
N
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.

CI

Day 01 : Overnight Camping in White Desert or black desert & Dinner Under the Stars:

Day 02: Wadi Hitan Protectorate / Back To Cairo

Price includes:

Hotel pickup and drop off service

All transfers by modern private AC van

Entrance fees as per itinerary

Expert personal Egyptologist guide

A Bottel of mineral Water per day

Meals as per the tour itinerary

All taxes & service charge

Price excludes:

Any extras not mentioned

Personal expenses

Notes:

Trip runs every day.

Prices are quoted in US$ per person.

Tour is operated privately.

Discounts are available for groups and children.

Price Per Person:

Single : 395 Usd

From 2 to 3 pax: 245 Usd per person

From 4 to 10 pax : 199 Usd per person

egypt desert safari

CI

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Hello!

Day 01 : Overnight Camping in White Desert or black desert & Dinner Under the Stars:

Day 02: Wadi Hitan Protectorate / Back To Cairo

Price includes:

Hotel pickup and drop off service

All transfers by modern private AC van

Entrance fees as per itinerary

Expert personal Egyptologist guide

A Bottel of mineral Water per day

Meals as per the tour itinerary

All taxes & service charge

Price excludes:

Any extras not mentioned

Personal expenses

Notes:

Trip runs every day.

Prices are quoted in US$ per person.

Tour is operated privately.

Discounts are available for groups and children.

Price Per Person:

Single : 395 Usd

From 2 to 3 pax: 245 Usd per person

From 4 to 10 pax : 199 Usd per person

egypt desert safari

CI

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