“To Amenebis, the supreme god of Tchonemyris, and to the associated gods of the temple, for the eternal preservation of Antoninus Cæsar our Lord, and his whole house. The cell of the temple and the vestibule were repaired and renewed under Avidius Heliodorus, governor of Egypt; Septimius Macro being commander-in-chief, Plinius Capito being general of the forces, in the third year of the Emperor Cæsar Titus Ælius Adrianus Antoninus Augustus, the Pious. Mesore the eighteenth.” The Emperor Antoninus Pius reigned from A.D. 138 to A.D. 161, but antiquities unearthed from the ruins show that the town dates from the time of the Ptolemies and flourished into the Byzantine period. In addition to the above the dilapidated ruins of what were doubtless once imposing buildings exist at various points within the depression. One worthy of attention will be noted at Ain Amûr by travellers to Dakhla along the upper road. The exact age of the building is uncertain, though Wilkinson discovered thereon a portion of the name of one of the Cæsars. The small stone temple stood, like so many others in the oasis, in a courtyard enclosed by thick walls of unburnt brick, the fragmentary remains of which are visible in the illustration. The names of the principal deities inscribed on the temple walls are Kneph, Ammon, and Mut. Both Edmonstone and Wilkinson came to the conclusion that the temple is of greater antiquity than the majority of the monuments of the oasis; but I am inclined to believe, with Hoskins and Rohlfs, that its somewhat crude design is explicable on other grounds than that of age. Perhaps the most remarkable and imposing buildings in the oasis are the great Roman fortresses, among which may be mentioned Um el Dabâdib, Qasr Lebekha, and Dêr el Ghennîma. Possibly some of these were fortified monasteries, though until the ruins, as well as those of the extensive towns and cemeteries which existed in the neighbourhood, have been subjected to critical examination, their exact nature must remain in doubt. The so-called Dêr, near the foot of Jebel Ghennîma, was certainly a fort guarding one of the chief passes up the escarpment of the oasis. It is built of immensely thick walls, strengthened intermediately and at the four corners by enormous buttresses. The walls taper slightly upwards, and at the top are double, concealing a passage which ran round the entire building. In the centre of the court was a deep bore from which the inmates obtained their water, the surplus supply flowing through an underground conduit to the cultivated lands outside. Qasr Lebekha, situated in a lonely part of the depression under the northern escarpment, 12 kilometres north-west of Meheriq, has many points in common with the fortress just described. It is, however, much smaller, and its interior is completely filled with domed chambers, now falling into shapeless fragments.