Note 258 — Chapter XII · EGYPT.

The remarkable remains of this structure, executed with the greatest precision and skill, are described by Arnaud (Journal Asiatique, 7 série, tome 3, for the year 1874, p. 3 f. with plans; comp. Ritter, Erdkunde, xii. 861). On the two sides of the embankment, which has now almost wholly disappeared, stand respectively two stone structures built of square blocks, of conical almost cylindrical form, between which a narrow opening is found for the water flowing out of the basin; at least on the one side a canal lined with pebbles leads it to this outlet. It was once closed with planks placed one above another, which could be individually removed, to carry the water away as might be needed. The one of those stone cylinders bears the following inscription (according to the translation, not indeed quite certain in all its details, of D. H. Müller, Wiener Sitzungsberichte, vol. xcvii, 1880, p. 965): “Jata’amar the glorious, son of Samah’alî the sublime, prince of Saba, caused the Balap (mountain) to be pierced (and erected) the sluice-structure named Rahab for easier irrigation.” We have no secure basis for fixing the chronological place of this and numerous other royal names of the Sabaean inscriptions. The Assyrian king Sargon says in the Khorsabad inscription, after he has narrated the vanquishing of the king of Gaza, Hanno, in the year 716 B.C.: “I received the tribute of Pharaoh the king of Egypt, of Shamsiya the queen of Arabia, and of Ithamara the Sabaean; gold, herbs of the eastern land, slaves, horses, and camels” (Müller, l. c. p. 988; Duncker, Gesch. des Alterthums, ii.5 p. 327).