THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS with hieroglyphic carvings, brought here, and put up all in the space of seven months. I doubt whether our en¬ gineers could do such a job as quickly or as well.

We thought it a wonderful work to bring the Alexandria obelisk from Egypt to New York in the hold of a steamer. To load it a hole had to be cut in the bow of the vessel and the pillar dragged through. The Egyptian obelisk at Paris was carried across the Mediterranean on a barge, while that which now stands in London was taken there in an iron watertight cylinder which was shipped to Alexandria in pieces and built around the column as it lay upon the shore. When the great stone was thoroughly encased, the whole was rolled into the sea and thus towed to London. After the huge monoliths were landed, the modern engineers had great trouble to get them where they wanted them. The New York obelisk was rolled along upon iron balls running in iron grooves laid down for the purpose, while that of London was hauled over greased ways to the place where it now stands on the banks of the Thames.

The oldest temple of Egypt by five hundred years was unearthed here by the agents of the Egyptian Exploration Fund. This lies near the famous temple of Deir-el-Bahari, and in a valley which is a branch of that of the tombs of the kings. When I visited it to-day the excavators were at work, and the men in charge told me they had great hopes of making valuable dis¬ coveries. It was with the American representative of the Exploration Fund, that I went over the temple. I met him at the little one-story house which forms the laboratory and home of the foreign explorers, and had a chat with the other members as to the progress of the work. A number of specialists from Canada, England, 123