till the XXIInd year of his reign that he was
able to set seriously to work.*

* In the inscription of the year XXII., Ahmosis expressly
states that he opened new chambers in the quarries of Turah
for the works in connection with the Theban Amon, as well as
for those of the temple of the Memphite Phtah.

An opportunity then occurred to revive a practice long fallen into
disuse under the foreign kings, and to set once more in motion an
essential part of the machinery of Egyptian administration. The quarries
of Turah, as is well known, enjoyed the privilege of furnishing the
finest materials to the royal architects; nowhere else could be found
limestone of such whiteness, so easy to cut, or so calculated to lend
itself to the carving of delicate inscriptions and bas-reliefs. The
commoner veins had never ceased to be worked by private enterprise,
gangs of quarrymen being always employed, as at the present day, in
cutting small stone for building purposes, or in ruthlessly chipping it
to pieces to burn for lime in the kilns of the neighbouring villages;
but the finest veins were always kept for State purposes. Contemporary
chroniclers might have formed a very just estimate of national
prosperity by the degree of activity shown in working these royal
preserves; when the amount of stone extracted was lessened, prosperity
was on the wane, and might be pronounced to be at its lowest ebb when
the noise of the quarryman's hammer finally ceased to be heard.

[Illustration: 132.jpg A CONVOY OF TURAH QUARRYMEN DRAWING STONE]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Vyse-Perring.

Every dynasty whose resources were such as to justify their resumption
of the work proudly recorded the fact on stelae which lined
the approaches to the masons' yards. Ahmosis reopened the Turah
quarry-chambers, and procured for himself "good stone and white" for the
temples of Anion at Thebes and of Phtah at Memphis. No monument has as
yet been discovered to throw any light on the fate of Memphis subsequent
to the time of the Amenemhaits. It must have suffered quite as much
as any city of the Delta from the Shepherd invasion, and from the wars
which preceded their expulsion, since it was situated on the highway
of an invading army, and would offer an attraction for pillagers. By a
curious turn of fortune it was the "Fankhui," or Asiatic prisoners, who
were set to quarry the stone for the restoration of the monuments which
th