H. Palmer, however, from his observations, is of
opinion that the work in the tunnels of the mines was
executed entirely by means of bronze chisels and tools; the
flint implements serving only to incise the scenes which
cover the surfaces of the rocks.

The tunnels running straight into the mountain were low and wide, and
were supported at intervals by pillars of sandstone left _in situ_.
These tunnels led into chambers of various sizes, whence they followed
the lead of the veins of precious mineral. The turquoise sparkled on
every side--on the ceiling and on the walls--and the miners, profiting
by the slightest fissures, cut round it, and then with forcible blows
detached the blocks, and reduced them to small fragments, which they
crushed, and carefully sifted so as not to lose a particle of the gem.
The oxides of copper and of manganese which they met with here and
elsewhere in moderate quantities, were used in the manufacture of those
beautiful blue enamels of various shades which the Egyptians esteemed
so highly. The few hundreds of men of which the permanent population was
composed, provided for the daily exigencies of industry and commerce.
Royal inspectors arrived from time to time to examine into their
condition, to rekindle their zeal, and to collect the product of their
toil. When Pharaoh had need of a greater quantity than usual of minerals
or turquoises, he sent thither one of his officers, with a select body
of carriers, mining experts, and stone-dressers. Sometimes as many
as two or three thousand men poured suddenly into the peninsula, and
remained there one or two months; the work went briskly forward, and
advantage was taken of the occasion to extract and transport to Egypt
beautiful blocks of diorite, serpentine or granite, to be afterwards
manufactured there into sarcophagi or statues. Engraved stelae, to be
seen on the sides of the mountains, recorded the names of the principal
chiefs, the different bodies of handicraftsmen who had participated in
the campaign, the name of the sovereign who had ordered it and often the
year of his reign.

It was not one tomb only which Snofrui had caused to be built, but two.
He called them "Kha," the Rising, the place where the dead Pharaoh,
identified with the sun, is raised above the world for ever. One of
these was probably situated near Dahshur; the other, the "Kha risi," the
Southern Rising, appears to be identical with the monument of Med