+--------------------------------------+
| _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ |
| * * * * * |
| =Crown 8vo. 10s. 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 Archæology.= |
| |
| With Illustrations. |
| * * * * * |
| =WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, |
| EDINBURGH AND LONDON.= |
+--------------------------------------+
[Illustration: The head of Wady Gatâr.—Page 100.]
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
GEMNIKAI’ (WITH PROFESSOR VON BISSING), ETC.
SECOND IMPRESSION
William Blackwood and Sons
Edinburgh and London
1913
_ALL RIGHTS RESERVED_
_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 Hammamât 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 Dukhân. I am indebted to Prof. Sayce and Mr
Seymour de Ricci for several notes on the Greek inscriptions at
Wady Abâd. 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.
* * * * *
PAGE
I. THE EASTERN DESERT AND ITS INTERESTS 1
II. TO THE QUARRIES OF WADY HAMMAMÂT 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 ABÂD 141
VII. A NUBIAN HIGHWAY 169
ILLUSTRATIONS.
* * * * *
PLATE PAGE
THE HEAD OF WADY GATÂR _Frontispiece_
I. IN THE DESERT. THE AUTHOR IS SEEN ON THE NEAR 10
CAMEL
ON THE EDGE OF THE EASTERN DESERT 10
II. DESERT VEGETATION. THE COLOQUINTIDA PLANT 16
A NEAR VIEW OF THE COLOQUINTIDA PLANT. 16
PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE WADY ABÂD
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 LAGÊTA 36
BIR HAMMAMÂT, LOOKING SOUTH 36
VI. CARTOUCHES OF SETY II. ON THE ROCKS BETWEEN BIR 40
HAMMAMÂT AND WADY FOWAKHÎEH
INSCRIPTIONS ON THE ROCKS BETWEEN BIR HAMMAMÂT 40
AND WADY FOWAKHÎEH
VII. INSCRIPTIONS AND MARKS 46
VIII. THE CAMP IN WADY FOWAKHÎEH, LOOKING DOWN FROM 50
THE HILLS ON THE NORTH SIDE. THE CAMEL TRACKS
ARE SEEN PASSING ALONG THE VALLEY
WADY FOWAKHÎEH, LOOKING EAST. THE CAMEL TRACKS 50
WILL BE NOTICED AGAIN
IX. ABANDONED SARCOPHAGUS ON THE HILLSIDE IN WADY 54
FOWAKHÎEH
A TYPICAL VALLEY NEAR WADY FOWAKHÎEH 54
X. ROCK INSCRIPTIONS AT WADY FOWAKHÎEH AND KOSSAIR 60
XI. BIR ES SID, THE WELL AT THE HIGHEST POINT OF 66
THE RED SEA HIGHROAD
THE ROMAN FORTRESS OF ABU ZERAH, LOOKING 66
SOUTHEAST
XII. DESERT PANORAMA FROM A HILL-TOP TWO HOURS’ RIDE 74
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 90
CAMELS
MIDDAY REST AT EL GHAITEH. CAMELS FEEDING FROM 90
THE BUSHES
XVI. THE ROMAN STATION AT EL GHAITEH, LOOKING DOWN 96
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 96
EL GHAITEH
XVII. THE EXCAVATION INSIDE THE ENCLOSURE OF EL 104
SARGIEH
THE ROMAN STATION AT EL GREIYEH. THE ANIMAL 104
LINES. THE BRICK PILLARS SUPPORTED THE ROOF
UNDER WHICH WERE THE NIGHT-STALLS
XVIII. GRANITE HILLS TO THE SOUTH OF WADY BILEH. THE 108
GEBEL DUKHÂN RANGE IS TO THE NORTH OF THIS WADY
RUINS OF THE ROMAN TEMPLE AT GEBEL DUKHÂN, 108
SHOWING THE HILLSIDE FROM WHICH THE PORPHYRY
WAS TAKEN
XIX. THE RUINS OF THE TOWN OF GEBEL DUKHÂN. THE 114
UPRIGHT PILLARS OF GRANITE SUPPORTED A ROOF
THE ROMAN TOWN OF MONS CLAUDIANUS, LOOKING 114
SOUTH FROM THE CAUSEWAY LEADING TO THE MAIN
QUARRY. THE ROUND PILES OF STONE IN THE
FOREGROUND ARE BUILT AT INTERVALS ALONG THE
CAUSEWAY
XX. MONS CLAUDIANUS. THE TOWN 120
MONS CLAUDIANUS. CHAMBERS ON THE WEST SIDE OF 120
THE FORECOURT OF THE TEMPLE. THE THRESHOLD AND
BASE OF A COLUMN OF THE GRANITE PORTICO ARE
SEEN ON THE RIGHT
XXI. MONS CLAUDIANUS. EAST END OF THE TEMPLE 124
MONS CLAUDIANUS, LOOKING OVER THE TOWN TO THE 124
TEMPLE ON THE HILLSIDE
XXII. MONS CLAUDIANUS. DOORWAY LEADING FROM THE HALL 128
OF THE BATH-HOUSE INTO THE ROOM IN WHICH WAS
THE PLUNGE-BATH. ORIGINALLY THE WALLS WERE
PLASTERED
MONS CLAUDIANUS. PEDESTAL OF THE ALTAR IN THE 128
FORECOURT OF THE TEMPLE. THE ALTAR ITSELF IS
SEEN BROKEN IN THE FOREGROUND
XXIII. MONS CLAUDIANUS. THE FIRST HEATED ROOM OF THE 132
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
MONS CLAUDIANUS. THE SAME DOORWAY—NEARER VIEW 132
XXIV. MONS CLAUDIANUS. A LARGE GRANITE COLUMN LYING 138
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
MONS CLAUDIANUS. LARGE GRANITE COLUMNS LYING AT 138
THE FOOT OF A QUARRY WEST OF THE TOWN
XXV. THE ROMAN STATION OF ABU GEHÂD. SOME OF THE 142
ROOMS AS SEEN FROM THE COURT, LOOKING WEST
FRONT VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABÂD 142
XXVI. THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABÂD. THE EAST END OF 146
THE PORTICO. THE SQUARE PILLAR WAS BUILT
IN GRÆCO-ROMAN TIMES TO SUPPORT THE BROKEN
ARCHITRAVE
THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABÂD. THE EAST WALL OF THE 146
PORTICO. THE KING IS SEEN SMITING A GROUP OF
NEGROES
XXVII. THE MAIN ENTRANCE OF THE ROMAN STATION OF WADY 150
ABÂD, LOOKING WEST FROM INSIDE THE ENCLOSURE
THE PILES OF STONE ERECTED OPPOSITE THE TEMPLE 150
OF WADY ABÂD
XXVIII. INSCRIPTIONS AND DRAWINGS IN AND NEAR THE 154
TEMPLE OF WADY ABÂD
XXIX. ARCHAIC DRAWINGS OF SACRED BOATS ON ROCKS NEAR 156
TEMPLE OF WADY ABÂD
XXX. ARCHAIC DRAWINGS OF SACRED BOATS, ANIMALS, 162
ETC., ON ROCKS NEAR TEMPLE OF WADY ABÂD
XXXI. GREEK INSCRIPTION RELATING TO AN ELEPHANT HUNT. 166
ON A ROCK TO THE EAST OF THE TEMPLE OF WADY
ABÂD
SKETCH-PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF WADY ABÂD 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 184
ASWÂN
VIEW OF THE ISLANDS IN THE RIVER, ETC., FROM 184
NEAR THE INSCRIBED ROCK AT THE HEAD OF THE
ELEPHANTINE ROAD
Travels in the
Upper Egyptian Deserts.
* * * * *
I.
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 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 hyænas 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 writer’s 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
archæology 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 ghosts of the Old World;
and on hidden hill-slopes 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; Golénischeff, 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 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.
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 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, orange-coloured 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 four-pronged footprints of a wagtail, and there the larger
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 hyæna, 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 slanting lines 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 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 the desert.
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
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 beam into the eyes of every living thing, so that in a moment
the camp is stirred and awakened.
[Plate I:
Illustration: In the Desert. The Author is seen on the near camel.
Illustration: On the edge of the Eastern Desert.—Page 30.]
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 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 Shêkh 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 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 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 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 gold-mining, 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 of the
province, and the latter, on the east bank, does not date earlier
than Dynasty VI. 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 (Kubbân), 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.
[Plate II:
Illustration: Desert vegetation. The Coloquintida plant.
Illustration: A near view of the Coloquintida plant. Photographed
in the Wady Abâd.]
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 Vizir 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 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 cedar-wood 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 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 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. 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.
[Plate III:
Illustration: One of the riding-camels.
Illustration: One of the camels.]
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, diorite, 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 Hammamât
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 constant use; and in the time of
the Roman Empire the famous Imperial porphyry was quarried in the
mountains of Gebel Dukhân. One may still see blocks of breccia
at Hammamât, of granite at Um Etgal, or of porphyry at Dukhân,
lying abandoned at the foot of the hills, although numbered and
actually addressed to the Cæsars. 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 Ramesside times the food of an
expedition of some 9000 men was 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.
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 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 Shêkh, 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 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 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 HAMMAMÂT.
The so-called Breccia Quarries of Wady Hammamât 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 Fowakhîeh, “the
Valley of the Pots”; but such niceties do not trouble the average
archæologist. Many of the inscriptions were copied by Lepsius,
the late German Egyptologist, and further notes were made by
Golénischeff, 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 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 twenty-three camels, nine of which were ridden by our four
selves, my servant, two guards, the Shêkh 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 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 camel-boxes 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 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.
[Plate IV:
Illustration:
1-3. Marks on a rock near Quft.
4-6. On a rock near Qus. Old kingdom drawings
7. On a stone at Lagêta.—Page 32.
8, 9. Inside Kasr el Benât.—Page 33.
10-12. On rocks opposite Kasr el Benât.—Page 34.
13, 14. Sinaitic inscription opposite Kasr el Benât.—Page 34.
15-20. Opposite Kasr el Benât.—Page 34.
21-24. Marks on rocks of Abu Kueh.—Page 34.
25-32. Middle kingdom inscriptions, and marks at Abu
Kueh.—Page 34.]
We were now on the great mediæval highway from Qus to Kossair, by
which the Arabian and Indian trade with Egypt was once conducted. The
quarries of Hammamât 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 mediæval days
it started from Qus, about ten miles south of Quft again. The roads
from these different places join at the little oasis of Lagêta,
which lies some four-and-twenty miles back from the Nile valley.
Riding into Lagêta 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 Hammamât 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 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.