nor was their active life resumed until the accession of the XIIth
dynasty. The veins in the Wady Maghara were much exhausted, but a series
of fortunate explorations revealed the existence of untouched deposits
in the Sarbut-el-Khadim, north of the original workings. From the time
of Amenemhait II. these new veins were worked, and absorbed attention
during several generations. Expeditions to the mines were sent out every
three or four years, sometimes annually, under the command of such
high functionaries as "Acquaintances of the King," "Chief Lectors,"
and Captains of the Archers. As each mine was rapidly worked out, the
delegates of the Pharaohs were obliged to find new veins in order
to meet industrial demands. The task was often arduous, and the
commissioners generally took care to inform posterity very fully as to
the anxieties which they had felt, the pains which they had taken, and
the quantities of turquoise or of oxide of copper which they had brought
into Egypt. Thus the Captain Haroeris tells us that, on arriving at
Sarbut in the month Pha-menoth of an unknown year of Amenemhait III.,
he made a bad beginning in his work of exploration. Wearied of fruitless
efforts, the workmen were quite ready to desert him if he had not put a
good face on the business and stoutly promised them the support of the
local Hathor.

[Illustration: 334.jpg PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF SARBUT EL KHADIM]

And, as a matter of fact, fortune did change. When he began to despair,
"the desert burned like summer, the mountain was on fire, and the vein
exhausted; one morning the overseer who was there questioned the miners,
the skilled workers who were used to the mine, and they said: 'There is
turquoise for eternity in the mountain.' At that very moment the vein
appeared." And, indeed, the wealth of the deposit which he found so
completely indemnified Haroeris for his first disappointments, that in
the month Pachons, three months after the opening of these workings, he
had finished his task and prepared to leave the country, carrying his
spoils with him. From time to time Pharaoh sent convoys of cattle and
provisions--corn, sixteen oxen, thirty geese, fresh vegetables, live
poultry--to his vassals at the mines.

[Illustration: 335.jpg THE RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF HATHOR]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in the _Ordnance Survey,
Photo-graphs_, vol. iii. pl. 8.

The mining population increased so fast that two chapels were built,