Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

348 THE SAEED. [Chap. VI.

Saeed, however, merely signifies the upper country,
and the traveller will continue to hear that the
Saeed is still before him, should he even reach
Dongola or Sennar; nor is Reef, "the cultivated
land," confined to any particular part of Egypt, but
applies to all the valley of the Nile, in contradis-
tinction to the desert.

In the western face of the limestone mountains,*
behind El Maasara,*j- and about nine miles from
Qaherah, are several extensive quarries, from which
part of the stone of the pyramids was taken. Some
tablets of hieroglyphics are here met with, and the
names of some Pharaoh kings. In one of the former,
sculptured during the reign of Amosis, the first
monarch of the eighteenth dynasty, is the represen-
tation of a sledge, bearing a block of stone, drawn
by six oxen; and in another is a small figure of a
man engaged in cutting the stone with a chisel and
mallet. From the quarries descends an inclined
road, which terminates near the river, to the south
of the modern village, constructed no doubt for the
purpose of transporting the stones to the Nile. It
does not appear that the Troicus pagus stood here,
but its site was more probably to the northward,
near the village of Toora, where some remains of
crude brick still exist. Though this name bears
considerable resemblance to that of the ancient
village, we are not altogether authorized to derive

* The Troici lapidis mons of Ptolemy and Strabo.
t This word signifies " the mill" or " press."