CHAP. 7, 8. DISTANCE OF HELIOPOLIS FROM THE SEA.

altar of the twelve gods at Athens to the temple of Olympian Jove at Pisa. If a person made a calculation he would find but a very little difference between the two routes, not more than about fifteen furlongs; for the road from Athens to Pisa falls short of fifteen hundred furlongs by exactly fifteen, whereas the distance of Heliopolis from the sea is just the round number." 8. As one proceeds beyond Heliopolis' up the coun

INTERIOR OF EGYPT.

BOOK II.

try, Egypt becomes narrow, the Arabian range of hills, which has a direction from north to south, shutting it in upon the one side, and the Libyan range upon the other. The former ridge runs on without a break, and stretches away to the sea called the Erythræan; it contains the quarries whence the

surrounded it, and by a granite obelisk bearing the name of Osirtasen I. of the 12th dynasty, dating about 3900 years ago. It was one of two that stood before the entrance to the temple of the Sun, at the inner end of an avenue of sphinxes; and the apex, like some of those at Thebes, was once covered with bronze (doubtless gilt), as is shown by the stone having been cut to receive the metal casing, and by the testimony of Arab history. Tradition also speaks of the other obelisk of Heliopolis, and of the bronze taken from its apex. Pliny (36, 8) supposes that Mitres, the first king who erected an obelisk, held his court at Heliopolis, and that those monuments were dedicated to the Sun;

but that depended upon what God the temple belonged to, the obelisks at Thebes being erected to Amun, and in other places to other deities. The name of Heliopolis was êi-n'-re, "the abode of the Sun," from which the Hebrew On or Aôn corrupted into Aven (Ezek. xxx. 17) was taken, and which was translated Beth-shemesh, "the house of the Sun" (Jerem. xliii. 13). The Arabs called it Ain Shems, "fountain of the Sun," from the spring there, which the credulous Christians believed to have been salt until the Virgin's visit to Egypt. The Arabic name of the neighbouring village, Mataréeh, was supposed to signify "fresh water," and to refer to the fountain; but this is an error, as the masculine word Ma, "water," would require the name to be Ma-taree. (See M. Eg. W., vol. i. p. 295; and on the balsam of Heliopolis see my n. on ch. 107, B. iii.) In later times the artificial Amnis Trajanus ran a short distance to the northward of Heliopolis; and on that side of the city were lakes supplied with water

8

large and lofty crude brick walls of from the neighbouring canal. The Heliopolis enclosed an irregular area measuring 3750 feet by 2870, having the houses on the north side covering a space of 575,000 square feet, to the south of which stood the temple of the Sun. This occupied a large portion of a separate enclosure, or temenos, at one side of the town; and a long avenue of sphinxes, described by Strabo, led to the two obelisks before sphinxes may still be traced, as well the temple (see plan). Some of the as the ruins of the houses, which, higher level than the temenos, owing like those of Bubastis, stood on a to their foundations having been raised from time to time, while the temple remained in its original site. In Strabo's time the houses were shown where Plato and Eudoxus lived while studying under the priests of Heliopolis; but the city, which had for ages been the seat of learning, lost its importance after the accession of the Ptolemies, and the schools of Alexandria took the place of the anxvii.). The walls are in some places cient colleges of Heliopolis (see Strab. double, but throughout of great strength; and here and there the positions of the gates may still be S.E. side a large road ran through the traced. From one of these on the desert to the Red Sea, and a smaller (behind Cairo) by what is called the one led across the Mokuttum hills petrified forest," and rejoined the valley of the Nile near the quarries of "the Trojan hill.” A stone gateway has lately been found at Heliopolis with the name of Thothmes III.—[G. W.]

66

8 The quarries from which the stone for the casing of the pyramids was taken are in that part of the

CHAP. 8.

LIBYAN AND ARABIAN RANGES.

11

stone was cut for the pyramids of Memphis and this is the point where it ceases its first direction, and bends away in the manner above indicated. In its greatest length from east to west, it is, as I have been informed, a distance of two months' journey; towards the extreme east its skirts produce frankincense. Such are the chief features of this range. On the Libyan side, the other ridge whereon the pyramids stand, is rocky and covered with sand; its direction is the same as that of the Arabian ridge in the first part of its course. Above Heliopolis, then, there is no great breadth of territory for such a country as Egypt, but during four days' sail Egypt is narrow; the valley

1

used for floors of rooms and for other building purposes.—[G. W.]

9 That is, towards the Erythræan Sea, or Arabian Gulf. [The bend of the mountain is really where Cairo now stands, whence it runs towards the Red Sea. The notion of Herodotus respecting its extent to the E. was vague, and he evidently confounds, or connects, it with the peninsula of Arabia, the country of incense; though he speaks of the mountain-range on the E. of the Nile extending southwards along the Red Sea. Its breadth from the Nile to the Red Sea direct is 82 miles in lat. 300, increasing to 175 in lat. 240.G. W.]

modern El-Mokuttum range of hills | even-grained magnesian limestone is called by Strabo the "Trojan mountain" (Tpwikov opos. xvii. p. 1147), and now Gebel Masarah or Toora Mãsarah, from the two villages below them on the Nile. Toora, though signifying in Ar. a "canal," is evidently the Troja of Strabo, which stood in this neighbourhood, and which he pretends was built by and named after the Trojan captives of Menelaus. But the probability is that some Egyptian name was converted by the Greeks into Troja, and by the Arabs into Toora; and we may perhaps ascribe to it the same origin as the "Tyrian camp" at Memphis mentioned by Herodotus (see note on ch. 112). The employment of the stone in the pyramids, and the names of the early kings found there, show that these quarries were already used by the ancient Egyptians from the time of the 4th to the 18th dynasty (as well as after that period), and consequently during the Shepherd occupation of Memphis.

5

On

one tablet was the representation of a large stone on a sledge drawn by oxen, having the name of Amosis (Ames), the first king of the 18th dynasty: and on others the date of the 42nd year of Amun-m-he (3rd of the 12th dynasty) and the names of later kings. The quarries are still worked by the modern Egyptians, and this

That is, from Heliopolis southward; and he says it becomes broader again beyond that point. His 200 stadia are about 224 to 23 miles. The whole breadth of the valley from the Eastern to the Western hills is only from 12 to 15 m. This must have appeared a very great change after leaving the spacious Delta, a level plain, without any mountains being seen to the E. or W. The four days, reckoning, as he does, 540 stadia to a day, would be about 245 Eng. m., or to about the vicinity of Sioót; but it cannot be the spot, where he thinks the valley "becomes broader," ac

12

EGYPT ONCE A GULF OF THE SEA.

BOOK II..

between the two ranges is a level plain, and seemed to me to be, at the narrowest point, not more than two hundred furlongs across from the Arabian to the Libyan hills. Above this point Egypt again widens."

3

9. From Heliopolis to Thebes is nine days' sail up the river; the distance is eighty-one schoenes, or 4860 furlongs. If we now put together the several measurements of the country we shall find that the distance along shore is, as I stated above, 3600 furlongs, and the distance from the sea inland to Thebes 6120 furlongs. Further, it is a distance of eighteen hundred furlongs from Thebes to the place called Elephantiné.

10. The greater portion of the country above described seemed to me to be, as the priests declared, a tract gained by the inhabitants. For the whole region. above Memphis, lying between the two ranges of hills that have been spoken of, appeared evidently to have formed at one time a gulf of the sea. It resembles (to compare small things with great) the parts about Ilium and Teuthrania, Ephesus, and the plain of the Mæander."

cording to his calculation of nine days to Thebes, which would require it to be less than half-way, or about Gebelaboofaydeh, and this would agree still less with his description of the increasing breadth of the valley, which is there only 7 miles from the Eastern to the Western hills.—[G. W.]

2

Compare the description of Scylax (Peripl. p. 103), who says that Egypt is

shaped like a double-headed battle-axe (Teλékvs or bipennis), the neck which joins the two heads being in the vicinity of Memphis.

3 The nine days' sail, which Herodotus reckons at 4860 stadia, would give about 552 Eng. miles; but the distance is only about 421, even following the course of the river. From the sea to Thebes he reckons 6120 stadia, at the least computation-about 700 miles-but the distance is by modern measurement only 566 miles; and his distance of 1800 stadia from Thebes

to Elephantine, at least 206 miles, exceeds the truth by above 700 stadia, being really 124 miles.-G. W.]

"a

* See above, notes on ch. 5. Herodotus says, most of the country is "acquired by the Egyptians," and " gift of the river;" but as the same deposit continues throughout the whole valley, these remarks can only apply to the original formation of the land; the soil since the time that Egypt was first inhabited being only deeper, and more extended E. and W. towards the mountains; and whatever form the valley may have had in the early ages of the world, it could not have been a gulf of the sea since Egypt was inhabited.-[G. W.]

5 In some of these places the gain of the land upon the sea has been very great. This is particularly the case at the mouth of the Maander, where the alluvial plain has advanced in the historic times a distance of 12 or 13

CHAP. 9, 10.

EFFECTS OF RIVER-DEPOSITS.

13

In all these regions the land has been formed by rivers, whereof the greatest is not to compare for size with any one of the five mouths of the Nile. I could mention other rivers also, far inferior to the Nile in magnitude, that have effected very great changes. Among these not the least is the Acheloüs, which, after passing through Acarnania, empties itself into the sea opposite the islands called Echinades, and has already joined one half of them to the continent."

miles. (See note to Book i. ch. 142.) At Ephesus there is now a plain of three miles between the temple and the sea (Leake's Asia Minor, p. 259, note), which has been entirely created since the days of Herodotus. At the mouths of the Scamander and the Caïcus (which drained Teuthrania, Strab. xiii. p. 883, Plin. H. N. v. 30), the advance of the land, though less, is still very perceptible.

"This signifies the natural branches of the Nile; and when seven are reckoned, they include the two artificial ones, the Bolbitine and Bucolic or Phatmetic, which Herodotus says were the work of man. See note on ch. 17.-[G. W.]

? These islands, which still bear the same name among the educated Greeks, consist of two clusters, linked together by the barren and rugged Petalá. The northern cluster contains 15 or 16 islands, the principal of which is Dhragonára. The southern contains only five or six: the most important are Oxiá, Makrí, and Vrómona. They are British dependencies, being included in the Ionian islands. Except Oxiá, they all lie north of the present mouth of the Acheloüs (Aspro). See Leake's Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 30-1.

8 That the Achelous in ancient times formed fresh land at its mouth with very great rapidity is certain,

Map of the country about the mouth of the River Achelous, chiefly after Kiepert.

N.B. The dark lines mark the ancient coast and islands.