BERYL (EMERALD): OCCURRENCE IN EGYPT 311 



centin-y from South America; they had been found previously, however, both with 

 Egyptian mummies and also among the ruins of the two Roman cities, Herculaneum 

 and Pompeii. These latter, which were discovered long before the end of the sixteenth 

 century (1566), could not have been brought from South America, the most important 

 locality at the present day, but probably came from Egypt or, as also mentioned in 

 ancient writings, from Scythian lands, and thus perhaps from the Urals, where they are 

 still found. 



The ancient Egyptian mines were re-discovered in the second decade of the nineteenth 

 century by Cailliaud, a member of the expedition organised by Mehemet Ali Pasha ; they 

 have been frequently visited since by European travellers. The workings were partly 

 surface and partly underground, the timbering of the latter being frequently found in a 

 well preserved state. The deposit was worked to a considerable extent, some of the mines 

 being large enough to admit of 400 men working together at the same time. The facts 

 which led these ancient miners to suspect the existence of emeralds in these deposits, and 

 the date at which the workings were commenced, are alike unknown. The appliances and 

 tools which have been found in the mines date back to the time of Sesostris (1650 B.C.). 

 It is recorded in ancient inscriptions that, in the time of Alexander the Great, Greek miners 

 were employed in these mines ; and it is evident that they were worked during the reign of 

 Cleopatra, for emeralds bearing an engraving of herself were used for presentation by this 

 queen. 



There is no subsequent record of the mines until their re-discovery by Cailliaud, who, 

 with the permission of Mehemet Ali, re-opened them in 1819, the actual work being 

 performed by Albanian miners. Perhaps on account of the poorness of quality of the 

 stones the work was soon abandoned, and apparently with great suddenness, for a number of 

 baskets filled with material ready to be drawn up to the surface have been discovered in the 

 mine just as they were left by the Albanian miners. 



These ancient mines are situated in a depression of the long range of mountains which 

 borders the west coast of the Red Sea ; in the same range are to be found gold and topaz 

 mines. The emerald mines are in two groups, one being known as the Jebel ( = Mount) 

 Sikait (also called Sakketto), and the other, about ten miles to the north, as the Jebel Sahara 

 (Zabara, Zubara, &c.), both being a little south of latitude 25° N. The most important 

 and extensive of the two groups of mines is that of the Jebel Sikait ; it is connected with 

 the Red Sea fifteen miles to the east by the Wadi Chamal, and judging from the ruins of 

 houses, temples, and other buildings which are still to be found there, must have been the 

 site of a town of no inconsiderable size. Hundreds of shafts of various depths have been 

 driven into the hill, which is 600 to 700 feet in height. These so-called Cleopatra's emerald 

 mines have recently (1899) been again visited by Mr. D. A. MacAlister with the view of 

 re-working the old mines. The ancient workings on the Jebel Sabara are similar, but less 

 extensive. 



The emeralds found here are of a fine, though not very deep, colour ; at both places 

 the mother-rock is a dark mica-schist interfoliated with talc-schist, and containing in the 

 Jebel Sikait district augite and hornblende in addition. The mother-rock of the emeralds 

 found in the Urals and in the Salzburg Alps, to be described later, is precisely similar in 

 character. 



It has occasionally happened that fine emeralds of a good colour, some cut and some 

 rough, together with other precious stones, have been thrown up by the sea on the beach 

 near Alexandria. These stones are apparently part of a sunken treasure, and probably came 

 originally from the ancient mines in Upper Egypt, being similar both in quality and in the 



