By the temple of Hathor, then, if we assume that the record is absolutely true (and I, for one, believe in these old records more and more), and that Cheops only described a shrine founded by the Hor-shesu, we are carried back to _circ._ 5000 B.C. I am indebted to my friend Dr. Wallis Budge for the suggestion that the position of Denderah as the terminus of the highway from the Red Sea--which may soon again be reached by a railway from Keneh to Kosseir!--would have made it one of the most important places in ancient Egypt. It is important to note that at a very early date the traffic between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, and thence probably with Arabia and South Africa, flourished, and grew to be a by no means insignificant commerce. According to Ebers,[57] "the oldest and most famous of all these highways is that which led from Koptos (Keneh, Denderah) to the Red Sea, through the valley now known as the Wady Hammamāt, and called by the ancient Egyptians Rohanu. It was a busy high-road, not alone for trading caravans, but from time to time for stonemasons and soldiers, whose task it was to hew the costly building materials from the hard rocks, which here abound, and to prepare the vast monoliths which were finished _in situ_, and then to convey them all to the residence of the Pharaohs. A remarkably beautiful kind of alabaster, of a fine honey yellow or white as snow, is found in these mountains." Another road led from Esneh or Edfû to the ancient port of Berenice. We shall see in the sequel that the temple of Redisieh on this route was dedicated to the same cult as that at Denderah. If the above results be confirmed, we have a most definite indication of the fact that in the rebuilding in the times of Pepi, Thothmes III., and the Ptolemies, the original orientation of the building was not disturbed; and that in the account of the building ceremonies we are dealing as surely with the laying of the first foundation-stone as with the original plan. In any case the consideration has to be borne in mind that the series of temples with high northern (and southern) amplitudes at Denderah, Thebes, and possibly other places, were nearly certainly founded before the time at which the heliacal rising of Sirius, near the time of the summer solstice, was the chief event of the year, watched by priests, astronomers--if the astronomers were not the only priests--and agriculturists alike. Now we know, from Biot's calculations, that this became possible _circ._ 3285 B.C., and that Sirius--though, as I am informed by Prof. Maspero, _not_ its heliacal rising--is referred to in inscriptions in pyramid times. Subsequent research may possibly show that these temples had to do with the heralding of sunrise throughout the year, the Sirian temples being limited to New Year's Day. CHAPTER XXI. STAR-CULTS.