584 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
There is no longer any doubt, then, that we have discovered what 
Strabo calls the well or the fountain of Abydos. He spoke of it as 
being near the temple, at a great depth, and remarkable for some 
corridors whose ceilings were formed of enormous monolithic blocks. 
That is exactly what we have found. 
These cells were 17 in number, 6 on each of the long sides. There 
was one in the middle of the wall at the back; in passing through it 
one came in the rear to the large hall which was the tomb of Osiris. 
A careful study of the sculptures confirmed the opinion that this was 
a funeral hall where the remains of the god were expected to be found. 
But this hall did not form a part of the original edifice. It must 
have been-constructed under ground when Séti I built the temple 
of the god. The tomb of Osiris was very near the great reservoir. 
Nothing revealed its presence; the entrance to it was exactly like that 
to all the other cells, the back of it bemg walled up after they had 
dug through it. 
The discovery of this subterranean reservoir, constructed of huge 
building stones, presents many questions, some of which let us hope 
may be solved by the completion of these excavations. At present 
we are checked. We could not get to the bottom of the basin, as it 
is obstructed by a number of large blocks thrown there at the time 
the edifice was destroyed. There are some millstones weighing 
several tons and other fragments just as heavy. We must get to 
the bottom in order to find out where the wall of magnificent masonry 
inclosing the water may lead, whether it ends at a flagstone pave- 
ment, and also whence comes the abundant supply of water that we 
see in our excavations. Hydraulic engineers are now studying the 
sheet of water which extends under Egypt, under the desert as well 
as under cultivated land. Is it that water that we find in the reser- 
voir? Or has it a conduit which emanates from no one knows where ? 
The word that Strabo uses might apply to a spring. 
We have as yet no certain indications of the date of the con- 
struction; but the style, the size of the materials, the complete 
absence of all ornamentation, all indicate very great antiquity. Up 
to the present time what is called the temple of the Sphinx at Gizeh 
has always been considered one of the most ancient edifices of 
Egypt. It is contemporaneous with the pyramid of Chefren. The 
reservoir of Abydos being of a similar composition, but of much 
larger materials, is of a still more archaic character, and I would not 
be surprised if this were the most ancient architectural structure in 
Egypt. The pyramids are perhaps of the same age, but a pyramid 
is simply a mass of stone and is not a complicated design like the 
reservoir. 
If we have here the most ancient Kgyptian structure that has been 
preserved to us, it is curious that it should be neither a temple nor a 
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