gems, beryl, emerald, Egypt

Reports on Frédéric Cailliaud’s explorations in Egypt and Nubia, including his rediscovery near Mount Zabarah (Jebel Zabara) of the ancient emerald mines known from classical authors and Arab tradition. The mines, long forgotten and unproductive, were found substantially as earlier engineers had left them, with numerous excavations and subterranean passages, some extending more than 400 men. Cailliaud began working the mines himself and presented six pounds of emeralds to Muhammad Ali Pasha. Nearby he discovered ruins of an ancient mining settlement, apparently inhabited by miners, including remains of several Greco-Egyptian temples with inscriptions. The account also describes Cailliaud’s journeys through the Eastern Desert and along the Red Sea, his observations of ancient Egyptian remains and natural history, and his copying of inscriptions, including a lengthy Greek inscription from Rosetta.