Hydreuma


In Hellenistic and Roman Arabia and Egypt, a hydreuma was an enclosed "watering station" at wadis in dry regions. A hydreuma was a manned and fortified watering hole or way station along a caravan route, providing a man-made oasis.
In the 1st century CE, Pliny's Natural History described the current Roman sea-route to India, which had recently been established. The Via Hadriana, the route that linked the Nile with the Red Sea, was established by hydreumata. The annual caravan from Alexandria sailed up the Nile to Keft.
The site of the "Hydreuma of Apollo", Apollos Hydreuma, mentioned by Pliny has yielded papyri in modern times. The hydreumata of Abu Qreiya and of Samut have been surveyed but not excavated. Abu Qreiya, one of these watering places, consists today of a concrete well in the wadi, drilled at the beginning of the 20th century; Aby Qreiya has been surveyed but not excavated.
Another route dictated by hydreumata dug into the beds of wadis linked the barren mountain that was the sole source of Roman "imperial porphyry" with the Nile, the Via Porphyritis, the Porphyry Road.