Travels in the Upper Egyptian deserts . s standopposite to each other, and the former, which is onthe west bank, is certainly the more ancient. OfElephantine and Syene, the latter, on the eastbank, is by far the less ancient. And in the caseof Pselchis and Baki (Kubban), the former, on thewest bank, has near it an archaic fortress; whilethe latter, on the east bank, does not date earlierthan Dynasty XII. The reason of this is to befound in the fact that most of the early cities wereengaged in gold-mining, and despatched caravansinto the Eastern Desert for that purpose. Thesecities were usually
Travels in the Upper Egyptian deserts . s standopposite to each other, and the former, which is onthe west bank, is certainly the more ancient. OfElephantine and Syene, the latter, on the eastbank, is by far the less ancient. And in the caseof Pselchis and Baki (Kubban), the former, on thewest bank, has near it an archaic fortress; whilethe latter, on the east bank, does not date earlierthan Dynasty XII. The reason of this is to befound in the fact that most of the early cities wereengaged in gold-mining, and despatched caravansinto the Eastern Desert for that purpose. Thesecities were usually built on the western bank ofthe river, since the main routes of communicationfrom end to end of Egypt passed along the westerndesert. Mining stations had, therefore, to befounded on the eastern bank opposite to theparent cities; and these stations soon becamecities themselves as large as those on the westernshore. Thus the antiquity of the eastern city ineach of these cases indicates at least that sameantiquity for the mining of Desert vegetation. The Coloquintida plant.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectegyptdescriptionandt
