one, were difficult of access, and would have
been useless had roads not been made, and works of this kind carried out,
so as to make life somewhat less insupportable there.

[Illustration: Fig. 48.--Section of dike at Wady Gerraweh.]

In order to reach the diorite and grey granite quarries of the Hammamat
Valley, the Pharaohs caused a series of rock-cut cisterns to be constructed
along the line of route. Some few insignificant springs, skilfully
conducted into these reservoirs, made it possible to plant workmen's
villages in the neighbourhood of the quarries, and also near the emerald
mines on the borders of the Red Sea. Hundreds of hired labourers, slaves,
and condemned criminals here led a wretched existence under the rule of
some eight or ten overseers, and the brutal surveillance of a company of
Libyan or negro mercenary troops. The least political disturbance in Egypt,
an unsuccessful campaign, or any untoward incident of a troubled reign,
sufficed to break up the precarious stability of these remote
establishments. The Bedawin at once attacked the colony; the workmen
deserted; the guards, weary of exile, hastened back to the valley of the
Nile, and all was at a standstill.

The choicest materials, as diorite, basalt, black granite, porphyry, and
red and yellow breccia, which are only found in the desert, were rarely
used for architectural purposes. In order to procure them, it was necessary
to organise regular expeditions of soldiers and workmen; therefore they
were reserved for sarcophagi and important works of art. Those quarries
which supplied building materials for temples and funerary monuments, such
as limestone, sandstone, alabaster, and red granite, were all found in the
Nile valley, and were, therefore, easy of access. When the vein which it
was intended to work traversed the lower strata of the rock, the miners
excavated chambers and passages, which were often prolonged to a
considerable distance. Square pillars, left standing at intervals,
supported the superincumbent mass, while tablets sculptured in the most
conspicuous places commemorated the kings and engineers who began or
continued the work. Several exhausted or abandoned quarries have been
transformed into votive chapels; as, for instance, the Speos Artemidos,
which was consecrated by Hatshepsut, Thothmes III. and Seti I. to the local
goddess Pakhet.[9]

[Illustration: Fig. 49.--Quarries of Silsilis.]

[Illustration: Fig. 50.--Draught of Hat