1847.] The Cave Temples and Emerald Mines of Sa/ceyt. 1139 



hand from the entrance ; the interior measurements of the temple are 

 ahout 50 ft. by 20 ft, eight feet high at the altar, and from 12 to 

 14 ft, high under the principal entrance. The doorways seem to have 

 had doors or curtains and bars, once fixed to them. The workmanship 

 is rude : from the position and general design of the temple its lateral 

 chapels and central nave, it appears to have been once a Christian 

 church. 



About 400 yards lower down the same side of the Wadi, is another 

 rock cut temple, much smaller in size, which contains the fragment of 

 a Greek inscription cut into the stone along the cornice in its front.* 



PHNIOY EYXAPIETCTn 

 KAITICIAI KAmiAriOAAnNI KAI 

 NAOICE0OIC nOIKMOIEPON 



BEPENEIKBC KAITO 

 PEYMATOC ADO ©OM 



The sign of a cross and apiece of a shell, such as are used in modern 

 Greek churches, were found in the temple. 



The ruins of houses are scattered around, constructed of fragments 

 of mica schist, steatite, quartz in part coloured green by the colouring 

 matter of the emerald, and containing crystals of emerald. 



The mines appear to have been sold out to companies of adventurers, 

 who built magazines and houses around the entrances of the excavations, 

 of which several hundred still remain. In many instances, wherever 

 the position of the quartz veins, and schists permitted, the whole face 

 of a mountain has been quarried down and exposed to research. 



The Zubara mines are galleries run into the mica schist ; layers, 

 containing nodules of emeraldic quartz, are often disposed so as to 

 have a layer of quartz for their roof. At Sakeyt, on the contrary, the 

 emeralds had been searched for in veins and layers of quartz, which is 

 tinged purple, yellow, and red. The more transparent and white sorts, 

 found in the debris thrown out by the ancient miners, exhibit the light 

 bluish green of the Egyptian emerald. The schists and steatites are 

 variously coloured, and mica occurs in golden scales. White, greenish, 



* The inscription contains apparently a dedication to the Egyptian goddess Isis 

 and to the Greek god Apollo. The cross and shell indicate it having been subsequently 

 used as a Christian chapel. — T. J. N. 



