694 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the twentieth dynasty, which, according to Erman, lasted from 

 1180-1050 B.C. The western Sinai copper and turquoise mining region 

 is separated from the Suez Gulf by a narrow plain and one range of 

 hills. Pharaoh's men called it the country of grottoes, in allusion to 

 the many pits and tunnels made by the Bedouin miners who preceded 

 them. It is known that in very early times copper ore of some kind 

 was mined not far from the gold mines of the southern desert region, 

 but the workings indicate that no great amount of metal was produced 

 from this locality. 



The country rock of the west side of the peninsula is a soft, friable, 

 yellow sandstone, probably cut by porphyry dikes,* and the method 

 of laying out the mines was not unlike that used in coal mining at 

 the present time. Tunnels or entries were driven and rooms were 

 worked out on each side, leaving pillars of rock to support the roof. 



On a peak at the junction of the Wadi Genneh and the Wadi 

 Maghara, the traveler finds a low wall enclosing a group of over 200 

 stone huts — some round and some rectangular — in which the miners 

 of many generations lived. With the exception of the houses of the 

 overseers, which have two rooms, the dwellings consist of a single 

 room, on one side of which a stone bunk or bench may have served for 

 table and bed. The walls of the houses are made of the sandstone 

 from the mines, and are laid up without mortar. The door is a very 

 narrow opening in one of the walls. The roofs were made of wicker 

 work covered with clay. The village was garrisoned to protect the 

 miners from the native tribes, and a temple was erected for the worship 

 of ' Hathor, the lady of the malachite country.' Below the village, 

 an artificial lake or reservoir was formed by damming the valley, and 

 the shellfish of the lake were used as food, along with dates, oil, milk 

 and a coarse bread, with occasionally a fowl or some other meat. Occa- 

 sionally the king sent a supply train into the camp, and an inscription 

 says that one of these consisted of: corn, 16 oxen, 30 geese, fresh 

 vegetables, live poultry and other things. 



The tools found in the village were all of flint, and included knives, 

 scrapers, hammers, saws, arrow heads and spear points. Stone tools 

 with wooden handles were found in the mines, but it is probable that 

 these were used in making the inscriptions which cover the walls, 

 and that the mining was done with bronze tools. The mine laborers 

 were principally criminals and prisoners of war, but an inscription 

 records the fact that one of the kings sent out an army officer and 734 

 soldiers to work the mines. There seems to have been but little inter- 

 ruption in the operation of the mines from the latter part of the third 

 dynasty until the end of the sixth (from about 2830 to possibly 2400 

 b.c). From this time until the twelfth dynasty (2130 B.C.) but little 

 work was done, but in this dynasty Egypt was on the crest of one of 



* See Dana, under ' Turquoise.' 



