cations of Middle Nubia were of great importance in the eyes of
the Pharaohs. They commanded the desert roads leading to the Eed Sea,
and to Berber and Gebel Barkel on the Upper Nile. The most important
fort occupied the site of the present village of Kuban, opposite Dakkeh,
and commanded the entrance to the Wady Olaki, which leads to the richest
gold deposits known to Ancient Egypt. The valleys which furrow the
mountains of Etbai, the Wady Shauanib, the Waddy Umm Teyur, Gebel Iswud,
Gebel Umm Kabriteh, all have gold deposits of their own. The gold is
found in nuggets and in pockets in white quartz, mixed with iron oxides
and titanium, for which the ancients had no use. The method of mining
practised from immemorial antiquity by the Uauaiu of the neighbourhood
was of the simplest, and traces of the workings may be seen all over the
sides of the ravines. Tunnels followed the direction of the lodes to a
depth of fifty-five to sixty-five yards; the masses of quartz procured
from them were broken up in granite mortars, pounded small and
afterwards reduced to a powder in querns, similar to those used for
crushing grain; the residue was sifted on stone tables, and the finely
ground parts afterwards washed in bowls of sycamore wood, until the gold
dust had settled to the bottom.*

* The gold-mines and the method of working them under the
Ptolemies have been described by Agatharchides; the
processes employed were very ancient, and had hardly changed
since the time of the first Pharaohs, as is shown by a
comparison of the mining tools found in these districts with
those which have been collected at Sinai, in the turquoise-
mines of the Ancient Empire.

This was the Nubian gold which was brought into Egypt by nomad tribes,
and for which the Egyptians themselves, from the time of the XIIth
dynasty onwards, went to seek in the land which produced it. They made
no attempt to establish permanent colonies for working the mines, as at
Sinai; but a detachment of troops was despatched nearly every year to
the spot to receive the amount of precious metal collected since their
previous visit. The king Usirtasen would send at one time the prince of
the nome of the Gazelle on such an expedition, with a contingent of
four hundred men belonging to his fief; at another time, it would be
the faithful Sihathor who would triumphantly scour the country, obliging
young and old to work with redoubled efforts for hi