With the return of more settled conditions travellers became more numerous. Lord Prudhoe and Major Felix (1827) were among those who visited the ruins of Serabit. The account of their journey was lost, but Lord Prudhoe, after inspecting the temple ruins, was the first and, as far as I am aware, the only traveller to whom it occurred that this might be the sanctuary that was visited by the Israelites. The fact was recorded by Edward Robinson who came into Sinai in the interest of Biblical research in 1838 and 1852 (i. 79) and who was himself immensely impressed by the ruins at Serabit. Other travellers who made a prolonged stay were Laborde and Linant (1828), to whom we owe the first detailed and illustrated account of the convent church, its architecture, its great mosaics and its numerous side chapels; Tischendorf, who secured the famous MS. for Petrograd, as mentioned above; Bartlett, whose rapid visit in 1839 established interesting geological facts, more especially with regard to the lie of the land between Sinai and Syria; and Lepsius, who came into Sinai in 1845 for the express purpose of copying the hieroglyph inscriptions at Maghara and Serabit, which he incorporated in his _Denkmäler_ (1860). Under the rule of Mehemed Ali safety was restored to the _hadj_ route across Sinai by the rebuilding of the forts at Adjrud (near Suez), Nakhl and Akaba. The settlement of a garrison brought regularity of transport which reacted favourably on the Bedawyn who undertook it. Mehemed Ali, also, was favourably disposed towards the convent. His nephew, Abbas Pasha, who succeeded him in 1849, visited Sinai in 1853, and formed the plan of building himself a summer residence on Mount Horeb. A road was therefore planned leading up from Tur on the coast, which crossed the desert and then led through the relatively luxurious valley of Hebron, with its many streams and the tamarisk grove of Solaf. It was partly completed in 1854, when the Pasha was assassinated. His successor Said Pasha (1854-63), was in friendly relations with Ferdinand Lesseps, whom he zealously supported in the scheme for constructing a canal through the Isthmus of Suez. The enterprise was financed by French and Turkish subscriptions, and was at the outset worked by means of forced labour, later with the help of modern engineering appliances. The canal was completed under Ishmael Pasha (1863-79) in 1869, and the British Government became a large shareholder. Ishmael Pasha was an Oriental despot who depleted the treasury and robbed the people, but who modernised Egypt by building schools, laying down railways, and setting up telegraph communications. In return for a large annual tribute he was raised to the rank of Khedive, or viceroy, of Egypt by the Sultan in 1867. But the financial difficulties, in which he became involved, were such that France and England brought pressure to bear on him and finally deposed him. He was succeeded by his son Tewfik Pasha (1879-92).