Ancient Gold Mines.

Thames Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8546, 29 December 1896, Page 1

Ancient Gold Mines.

Mr Theodore Bent, who Tinted an 4 described the extraordinary ruins w&J^ vestiges of ancient gold mines at Zun* ■ babye, in MswhonaUnd, has made a ,-': 1 similar discovery in a remote comer tf the Eastern Soudan, hitherto unex* : plored by modern travellers, .lit is ■ described : by him in a papjsr read before the Bojal Geographical Society '" and in an article in the "Nineteenth . Century." ' The locality is a. group el mountain^ not far from thajtai Sea-:^ and a little over 100, miles noirtfr of J Suakim. .> Storting from Sues hi «ft "*' open 80-ton Arab, dhow last Christ- - mas day, Mr Bent, who was a****- >? : . panied by bis wife, after 4 four days' . sail along the African ooacrt«f the|Wi|;Vs Sei, arrived at Komeir, formerly a J town of Eome importance. from ita^ ' nearness of the Nile at Keaeh, tntt now. a miserable place. Five miles to ; the north to it are the ruins of the old • Egyptian port, Myos Hormos, fameus 4 in the days of the Ptolemies as the ■- starting point of the Bed Sea fleets for * I India. In former times the whole of J the coast from Kossier to Suakim waa > studded with important towns, " now .' marked only by heaps of sand and a ■ few fallen walls,*' whose prosperity was based on the trade with Arabia, and India. The next place, of aote { reached was Berenice, a famous town under the Ptolemies, but now in' ruins. A few days were spent in exploring the ' site, in the centre of which is an old, ■ temple, dating from the Emperor Tiberius, the hieroglyphics on whicft are \ fast becoming obbterated. On the ': surface Mr Bent picked up numerous ' glass beads, Boman coins, bracelets, . &c, besides fragments of rough. - emeralds from the emerald mines iv aa " adjoining mountain. . ■ Continuing the journey along the •■ coast, tl^e party reached the port oil Mohammed Gol, over 100 miles due/ north of Suakim, a place wherer then . is a small Egyptian garrison. Sonw miles inland n-om here is a great mountain group known as Mount Erb*. r - The Bed Sea side of this group hasbeen visited several times by travellers , from Suakim, but no onehad •verbten behind it, and it was this' unknown side tnat Mr Bent determined to explore. Mount Erba rises directly out -, of the plain and reaches an altitude of 7,500 ft. Some miles inland from -. Mohammed Gol several, mysteri«as> towers, 20ft. high, and of unknown origin, were met with. They are dsmed and covered with white cement, voA ■ have no doors, butf windows high up. They are dotted all along ihe^coast, but whether they are tombs srksrsly landmarks for mariners will; not M \ known until one of them is excavated. On reaching the mountains som* interesting antiquities were discovered, at a spot called Hadai. The most remarkable was a circular fort, which, reminded Mr Bent of the similar. structures in Mashonaland. In % valley known as the Wadi Giabeit were found an ancient gold mine, the ruins of miners' huts, 700 or 800 in nuciber, and hundreds of crushing stones vomAb of basalt, which had been used for breaking quartz. On a highrpek was a Greek inscription that had; evidently been scratched by a miner; Burnt quartz and quartz refuse were lying about in all directions, and it was evident to Mr Bent that he Had come across the centre of a, great mining industry in,ages long gone by. TheexV , plorer subsequently came to the conclusion that these mines formed a portion of those referred to by the Arab writers, Edrisi and AbulfeoA, M the gold mines of Allako, which were . said to be near the Bed Sea, four (lays' journey from Aydab. -In the Turin - Museum is an old Egyptian map «f the time of the great King Seti the Vink, which. Mr Bent thinks probably s> rough.'sketch of these mines.' This locality seems far more likely to be the ancient Ophir than the Mashonaland mines, •* ;