altogether,
during the wars of the Heracleo-politan period: on their renewal it
was necessary to open up afresh routes which had been forgotten for
centuries.

[Illustration: 362.jpg THE ROUTES LEADING FROM THE NILE TO THE RED SEA,
BETWEEN KOPTOS AND KOSSEIR.]

Traffic was confined almost entirely to two or three out of the
many,--one which ran from Elephantine or from Nekhabit to the "Head of
Nekhabit," the Berenice of the Greeks; others which started from Thebes
or Koptos, and struck the coast at the same place or at Sau, the present
Kosseir. The latter, which was the shortest as well as the favourite
route, passed through Wady Hammamat, from whence the Pharaohs drew the
blocks of granite for their sarcophagi. The officers who were sent to
quarry the stone often took advantage of the opportunity to visit the
coast, and to penetrate as far as the Spice Regions. As early as the
year VIII. of Sonkheri, the predecessor of Amenemhait I., the "sole
friend" Hunu had been sent by this road, "in order to take the command
of a squadron to Puanit, and to collect a tribute of fresh incense
from the princes of the desert." He got together three thousand men,
distributed to each one a goatskin bottle, a crook for carrying it, and
ten loaves, and set out from Koptos with this little army. No water was
met with on the way: Hunu bored several wells and cisterns in the rock,
one at a halting-place called Bait, two in the district of Adahait, and
finally one in the valleys of Adabehait. Having reached the seaboard,
he quickly constructed a great barge, freighted it with merchandise for
barter, as well as with provisions, oxen, cows, and goats, and set sail
for a cruise along the coast: it is not known how far he went, but he
came back with a large cargo of all the products of the "Divine Land,"
especially of incense. On his return, he struck off into the Uagai
valley, and thence reached that of Rohanu, where he chose out splendid
blocks of stone for a temple which the king was building: "Never had
'Royal Cousin' sent on an expedition done as much since the time of
the god Ra!" Numbers of royal officers and adventurers followed in his
footsteps, but no record of them has been preserved for us. Two or three
names only have escaped oblivion--that of Khnumhotpu, who in the first
year of Usirtasen I. erected a stele in the Wady Gasus in the very heart
of the "Divine Land;" and that of Khentkhitioiru, who in the XXVIIIth
year of Amenemhait