DENDEEAH. 387 



to be satisfied with a slightly sulphureous liquid, which has to be sought over a 

 day's journey in the desert. The hills and plains of the surrounding district are 

 almost destitute of verdure, and all along the coast little is to be seen except sands 

 and the coral reefs that have been slowly upheaved above the present sea-level. 



Old Kosseir, lying over 3 miles to the north-west, is no longer accessible to 

 shipping. The sheh, or labyrinth of coralline rocks developed in front of the 

 beach, has rendered the entrance of the harbour so narrow that pilots no longer 

 venture to risk the passage Either Kosseir, or possibly some point farther north 

 on Abu-Somer Bay, marks the site of the ancient Myos Hormos, which during the 

 Roman period was one of the most frequented ports on the Red Sea. Numerous 

 tombs, inscriptions, and other remains of antiquity are found in the neighbourhood 

 of the town and round about the wells along the routes across the Arabian desert. 

 Rich sulphur beds were till recently worked at a i^lace farther north near the 

 headland of Ras-el-Gimsah, which faces the Ras Mohammed at the southern 

 extremity of the peninsula of Sinai. 



Denderah. 



On the left bank of the Nile over against Keneh the verdant plains of Denderah, 

 the Tentyris of the Greeks, afford a pleasant relief to the heaps of yellow refuse 

 and the triple enclosure of the triple temple still marking the site of this ancient 

 city. The inhabitants of this place were famous in former times for their skill in 

 capturing and charming the ci'ocodiles, which they used as mounts. At present 

 there are no longer any crocodiles in this part of the Nile. 



The great temple of Denderah, built on the foundations of older monuments, is 

 of comparatively recent date, as appears from the medallions of Cleopatra and the 

 Roman emperors down to Antoninus Pius. Nevertheless in its disposition and 

 ornamentation it reproduces the more ancient sanctuaries, although evidently 

 under the influence of Hellenic art. Hathor, the tutelar divinity of Denderah, 

 was a very different being as understood by the Alexandrian platonists from the 

 same goddess as worshipped in the time of the Pharaohs. The temple of Hathor, 

 which is in a good state of repair, is one of the richest in documents of a religious 

 character, ceremonial programmes, geographical tables of cities and provinces, texts 

 of prayers and incantations, calendars of feasts, medical recipes, lists of drugs, and 

 so forth. At Denderah was found the precious zodiac, since transferred to the 

 National Library of Paris. Mariette has devoted a large work solely to a descrij?- 

 tion of this temple, a very " Talmud in stone," which he himself contributed to 

 decipher, and many a page of which he discovered.* Taken as a whole this 

 monument unfolds in all its details a picture of the ancient ritual, revealing in 

 succession all the ceremonies from chamber to chamber, until we reach the " holy 

 of holies," where the king alone penetrating found himseK face to face with the 

 deity. 



" The portico of the temple is about 135 feet in width, and is architecturally 

 * " Denderah, description générale du grand temple de cette ville." 



