are to be found lying near. It at first occurred to me that a cemetery
of the Old Kingdom might lie here, and a search was made in all
likely, and some unlikely, places, but nothing was found, except a
broken water-jar with a late Greek inscription. The early pottery near
the temple was then turned over; it appeared to be a mere rubbish
heap, with no sign of tomb or of brick building. It lies on the slope
of the bank of loose detritus, on which the temple itself is built.
The torrent which, from time to time, sweeps down the old river-bed,
is, at this point, wearing away its southern bank. Below the heap of
old pottery is a little vertical cliff, 4 m. high, in so soft a rock
that it is clear the steep face has been recently formed, and the
temple itself is threatened by a small stream bed behind it. It may
be, then, as Professor Sayce first suggested, that the original temple
stood on the northern part of the shoal which is now washed away; this
idea is confirmed by our finding in the stream bed opposite the
present temple the early table of offerings shown in PL. IV, 1, with
many more small fragments of inscription on pieces of sandstone. The
original temple, then, has gone, the pile of pottery thrown out from
it will be carried away too; even the temple of Amenhotep may be
undermined within no very long period. The effects of sudden storms in
the desert are greater than might be supposed. There is no vegetation
to stop and absorb the rain, the ground is excessively hard, and all
that does not immediately sink into the soil runs rapidly down into
the larger watercourses, and forms in a few hours a deep and broad
stream. Such a storm occurred three years ago at El Kab, and the
inhabitants tell us that, for two days, a tributary stream entered
the Nile there. The railway engineers have had to provide for the
recurrence of such spates.

25. The foundation deposits may be considered together. They came from
two temples--the large one within the walls, and the small temple of
Thothmes III, which lies to the north of the town, and west of the
hill of Paheri. In the latter the deposits were very numerous for so
small a temple (_v._ PL. XXVI). Under each corner of the main wall was
one of the little pits filled with sand, which have now become so
familiar, and at a metre's distance along the side wall was another
and larger deposit. The pits were about .60 m. in diameter; in two,
there was at the bottom a recess, filled with