Other monuments found at Maghara point to the same conclusion. Thus one
rock-tablet represents King Khufu (IV 2), the great pyramid builder,
smiting the Anu in front of the ibis-headed figure of Thoth who stands
holding out his sceptre facing him (Fig. 4). Other Pharaohs are
represented as smiters. But after the Fifth Dynasty the opposition
which the Pharaohs encountered in Sinai must have come to an end, for
later Pharaohs were no longer represented as smiters, but are seen in
the double capacity of lord of Upper and of Lower Egypt standing and
facing the ibis-headed figure of the moon-god Thoth, who now holds out
to them his sceptre supporting an _ankh_ and a _dad_, the Egyptian
emblems of life and stability. Among the Pharaohs so represented was
Amen-em-hat III, sixth king of the Twelfth Dynasty, who is shown facing
the god Thoth behind whom the goddess Hathor is seen (Fig. 5). The
interpretation is that the Pharaoh is now acting in complete agreement
with the divinities of the place. Of these Thoth stands for the
moon-god who originally had his shrine at Maghara, and Hathor stands
for the presiding goddess who had her shrine at Serabit. This shrine
or sanctuary at Serabit is of special importance in the religious
associations of the peninsula.
CHAPTER III
THE SANCTUARY OF SERABIT
THE existence of the sanctuary at Serabit in Sinai was unknown to
Europeans till the year 1762, when it was chanced upon by Carsten
Niebuhr, who did not, however, record its name. Seetzen who visited it
between 1809 and 1810 noted this as Serrabit-el-Chadem.[20] _Sarbat_ is
Arabic for height, _khadem_ signifies slave. But Prof. Sayce claims for
the name a different derivation. In ancient Egyptian _ba_, plur. _bit_,
signifies hole or mine, _khetem_ signifies fortress. Serabit el Khadem
thus signifies mine fortress, with the prefix _sar_, which probably
stands for exalted.
Other place names in the district probably date from the ancient
Egyptians also. Thus the valley leading up from the coastal plain of El
Markha to the mine district is called Wadi Baba, _i.e._ mine valley.
Again, a tributary of the Baba, with its valley head close to Serabit,
is the Wadi Bateh, a name which probably includes the word for mine
also.
The sanctuary of Serabit[21] at the outset consisted of a cave, or
rather of two caves adjacent to one another, of which the larger, which
has been squared, measures 20 by 10 feet, the smaller one measures 6
by 4 feet with three steps leading up to a round-headed apse or recess
(Fig. 9).
These caves have separate entrances and lie in a knoll facing a plateau
in the midst of wild, upland scenery. The plateau lies some 2680 feet
above sea level, and is difficult of access on all sides (Fig. 6).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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