. Travels in the Upper Egyptian deserts . - Bileh. The Gebel Dukhanrange is to the north of this wady.—Page Ruins of the Roman temple at Gebel Dukhan, showing the hillsidefrom which the porphyry was taken.—Page 107. Pi., xviii. The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 109 many other objects cut out of Imperial Porphyry,one has admired the work of the mason or thegenius of the artist. But here in the Hills ofSmoke one thinks of these antiquities with afeeling bordering on veneration. If the workman-ship tells of an art that is dead, how much louderdoes the material cry out the praises of an energy
. Travels in the Upper Egyptian deserts . - Bileh. The Gebel Dukhanrange is to the north of this wady.—Page Ruins of the Roman temple at Gebel Dukhan, showing the hillsidefrom which the porphyry was taken.—Page 107. Pi., xviii. The Imperial Porphyry Quarries. 109 many other objects cut out of Imperial Porphyry,one has admired the work of the mason or thegenius of the artist. But here in the Hills ofSmoke one thinks of these antiquities with afeeling bordering on veneration. If the workman-ship tells of an art that is dead, how much louderdoes the material cry out the praises of an energythat is also dead ? Each block of stone is thewitness of a history of organisation and activityalmost beyond thought. This purple porphyrywas not known to the ancient Egyptians: aRoman prospector must have searched the desertto find it. One would have thought that thealoofness of the valley from which it is to beprocured would have kept its existence the secretof the hills; for on the one side a winding path-way, thirty miles in length, separates the spotfrom the little-known main road, and on the othersid
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