Note 83 — Chapter XXI
Reading edition
Diodorus (lib. iii. p. 105.) says, that near the confines of Egypt and the adjacent Ethiopia and Arabia, there is a place which abounds in rich gold mines, whence, at a great expense and toil of a great multitude of criminals, gold is dug. He speaks also of the manner they pounded the gold; and also mentions veins of white marble. It is a singular coincidence, that at the mines in the great Nubian desert, there are actually remaining mortars exactly such as he describes; and, with one exception, the only place I found white marble during this journey was in that desert, not far from the mines. The marble, however, may perhaps be the white quartz the gold is found in.