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)

428 NATRON. THE HAMR. [Chap. VII.

bank, stood the small town of Contra Laton, whose
site is marked by a temple of the time of Cleopatra
Cocce and Ptolemy Lathyrus; but the sculptures
were not completed till the reigns of Aurelius and
Commodus.

It has a portico, twenty-three feet by nineteen,
with four columns in front, and two in depth, be-
yond which are one central and two lateral cham-
bers, the former ten feet by sixteen; and this last is
succeeded by an inner-room, probably the sanctuary;
but from the whole of the back part being ruined,
its original extent is now doubtful.*

The carbonate of soda, natron, is found in the
vicinity of El Helleh. The Ababdeh also bring
from the eastern desert a talcose stone, called
hamr, for which there is a great demand through-
out Upper Egypt, being peculiarly adapted to the
manufacture of the biram, or earthen vessels for
cooking, which have the power of resisting a great
degree of heat, and are universally used by the pea-
sants. The hamr is first pounded and sifted; and,
after being moistened and mixed with brick-dust, is
fashioned with the hand, and baked in a kiln heated
to a proper temperature. But they have not yet
become acquainted with the process of vitrifying

* I understand this temple has shared the fate of those of Her-
mopolis, Antinoe, Qow, part of Dendera, and of Karnak, Qoos,
El Kab, E'Dayr, part of Edfoo, E'Sooan, Elephantine, and
others, whose materials have been used to erect government build-
ings in their vicinity.