Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

»W. xis. A WELL MADE IN THE DESERT 255

The abundant tributes and taxes which under
Tehuti-mes 1X1. were yearly contributed by the con-
quered nations and his own subjects, seem, from the
reign of Seti, to have flowed in less vigorously, while
the wants of the kings were the same, and the erection
of costly buildings required a great expenditure. New
sources must needs therefore be opened for the requisite
means. So the king began to devote special care to the
regular working of the gold-mines in Egypt and Nubia,
and to the formation of wells in the midst of the parched
mountain regions, from which the gold was to be won.
One of these was the desert on the eastern side of the
Nile, opposite to Edfu, which at this day bears the name
°f Bedesieh, and contains the remains of an old rock-
temple. It marks the site of one of the resting-places
on the road which led straight through the desert from
the town of Coptos, on the Nile, to the harbour of
Berenice, on the Eed Sea. The inscriptions on the
temple date from the time of Seti I. They not only
establish the existence of gold ore in the interior of the
mountain, but also the position of a well (hydreuma, as
the Greeks called it), made by royal command, and relate
how, in the ninth year of Seti, in the month Epiphi, on
the 20th day, that king undertook a journey to see the
gold mines which existed there. After he had gone
many miles he halted to consider the information he
had received, that the want of water made the road
almost impassable, and that travellers died of thirst in
the hot season of the year. At a suitable place a well
was bored, and a small rock-temple built there ' to the
name of King Seti.' Thereupon everything was done
to carry on the gold-washing with success. The people
who followed this laborious occupation were placed
under the supervision of a her-pit, or ' overseer of the
foreign peoples,' and measures were taken to ensure the