СИАР. 6, 7.

BREADTH AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.

7

Heliopolis is almost exactly the same as that of the road which runs from the altar of the twelve gods at Athens to the temple

The accumulation of alluvial soil at the base of the obelisk of Osirtasen at Heliopolis, as around the sitting Colossi in the plain at Thebes, has been often appealed to for determining the rise of the alluvial soil within a certain period, but as there is no possibility of ascertaining how far it stood above the reach of the inundation when first put up, we have no base for any calculation. The water of the inundation having been for ages kept out, according to Egyptian custom, from the enclosure in which the temple stood, the accumulation of deposit there was the more rapid when in after times the water was admitted, which readily accounts for “ SO great a thickness of one kind of sediment without any sign of successive deposition," which seems to have presented a difficulty to Mr. Horner.

I have supposed the deposit to have been raised at Elephantiné about 9 feet in 1700 years, and at Thebes about 7; but this is very uncertain. The increase is of course much less the farther you descend the valley, and at the mouth of the Nile it is very small; for it is there lessened far more than in the same decreasing ratio as between Elephantiné and Heliopolis, owing to the greater extent of land, east and west, over which the inundation spreads, so that in a section representing the accumulated soil and the level of the low Nile, the angle of inclination would be much smaller from the apex of the Delta to the sea, than from Thebes to the Delta. "Thus," as Mr. Horner says, "while the rise of the river at the island of Roda is 24 feet, near Ramanyeh, about 65 miles in a direct line N. of the apex of the Delta, the difference between the highest and the lowest water is about 13 feet, and at Rosetta and Damietta not more than 42 inches." The Nile at Asouan is said to be 300 feet above its level at Cairo, and 365 above the Mediterranean. The distance from the Rosetta mouth to Cairo is 154 miles, from Cairo to Asouan 578, following all the bends of the river, which give a total of 732 miles from the sea to the First Cataract.

According to M. Linant, the volume of water poured during 24 hours into the Mediterranean by the Nile, when low, is

At Sioót, which is about half-way from Asouan to Teránel, the French engineers found that in every second of time the mass of water that passes any one point is 678 cubic mètres at low Nile, and 10,247 at high Nile; and, according to M. Linant, at Cairo 414 cubic mètres at low, and 9440 at high, Nile. (See Mr. Horner's Memoir in Trans. R. Society, vol. 145, p. 101-138.)

The average fall of the river between Asouan and Cairo is "little more than half a foot in a mile, viz. 0.54 feet, and from the foot of the First Cataract to the sea is 0.524 feet in a mile;" but from Cairo to the Damietta mouth, according to the same authority (ib. p. 114), “the average fall is only 34 inches in a mile.”— [G. W.]

The altar of the twelve gods at Athens stood in the Forum, and seems from this passage and from one or two inscriptions (Rose, Tab. xxxii. p. 251; cf. Boeckh, Corp. Ins. 1. i. p. 32) to have served, like the gilt pillar (milliarium aureum) in the Forum at Rome, as a central point from which to measure distances. It was originally erected by Pisistratus, the son of the tyrant Hippias, but was afterwards enlarged and beautified by the Athenian people. (Thucyd. vi. 54.) Adjacent to this altar was the enclosure where votes for ostracism were taken. (Leake's Athens, p. 163, note ".)

8

DISTANCE OF HELIOPOLIS FROM THE SEA.

4

BOOK II

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 country, Egypt

This mention of Pisa is curious, considering that it had been destroyed so long before (B. c. 572) by the Eleans (Pausan. VI. xxii. § 2), and that it had certainly not been rebuilt by the close of the Peloponnesian war (Xen. Hell. 1. ii. § 31, comp. VII. iv. § 28). Probably Herodotus intends Olympia itself rather than the ancient town, which was six stades distant (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. x. 55) in the direction of Harpinna (Paus. VI. xxi.-xxii.), and therefore doubtless in the vicinity of the modern village of Miráka (see Leake's Morea, ii. p. 211), with which some are inclined to identify it. (Müller's Dorians, ii. p. 463, E. T. Kiepert, Blatt. vii.)

The correctness of this measurement, as compared with others in Herodotus, or indeed in the Greek writers generally, has been noticed by Col. Leake (Journal of Geograph. Soc. vol. ix. part i. p. 11). There is no reason to believe that the road was actually measured, but it was so frequently traversed that the distance came to be estimated very nearly at its true length.

Fifteen hundred furlongs (stades) are about equal to 173 English miles. [The real distance of Heliopolis from the sea, at the old Sebennytic mouth, is about 110 miles, or 100 in a direct line.-G. W.]

The site of Heliopolis is still marked by the massive walls that 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 éi-n'-re, "the abode of the Sun," from which the Hebrew On or Aon 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 from the neighbouring canal. The large and lofty crude brick walls of 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 the temple (see plan). Some of the sphinxes may still be traced, as well as the ruins of the houses, which, like those of Bubastis, stood on a higher level than the temenos, owing to their foundations having been raised from time to time, while the temple re mained in its original site. In Strabo's time the houses were shown where Platc and Eudoxus lived while studying under the priests of Heliopolis; but the city

CHAP. 8.

LIBYAN AND ARABIAN RANGES.

9

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 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 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 between the two ranges is a level

course.

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 ancient colleges of Heliopolis (see Strab. xvii.). The walls are in some places double, but throughout of great strength; and here and there the positions of the gates may still be traced. From one of these on the S.E. side a large road ran through the desert to the Red Sea, and a smaller one led across the Mokuttum hills (behind Cairo) by what is called the "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.]

5

The quarries from which the stone for the casing of the pyramids was taken are in that part of the modern El-Mokuttum range of hills called by Strabo the "Trojan mountain " (Tρwikov upos. xvii. p. 1147), and now Gebel Masarah or Toora Masarah, 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. 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 even-grained magnesian limestone is used for floors of rooms and for other building purposes.-[G. W.]

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. 30°, increasing to 175 in lat. 24°.-G. W.]

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

10

EGYPT ONCE A GULF OF THE SEA.

Воок ІІ.

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.2

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.5 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

This

of the valley from the Eastern to the Western hills is only from 12 to 15 m. 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 vicin ity of Sioót; but it cannot be the spot, where he thinks the valley becomes broader," according to his calculation of nine days to Thebes, which would require it to be less than half-way, or about Gebel-aboofaydeh, 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.]

* Compare the description of Scylax (Peripl. p. 103), who says that Egypt is shaped like a double-headed battle-axe (TEλéKus or bipennis), the neck which joins the two heads being in the vicinity of Memphis.

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.]

See above, notes on ch. 5. Herodotus says, most of the country is "acquired by the Egyptians," and "a 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.]

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 Mæander, where the alluvial plain has advanced in the historic times a distance of 12 or 13 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 Cafcus (which drained Teuthrania, Strab. xiii. p. 883, Plin. H. N. v. 30), the advance of the land, though less, is still very perceptible.

CHAP. 9, 10.

EFFECTS OF RIVER DEPOSITS.

11

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.R

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, Makri, and Vrómona. They are British dependencies, being included in the Ionian islands. Except Oxid, they all lie north of the present mouth of the Acheloüs (Aspro). See Leake's Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 30-1.

That the Acheloüs in ancient times formed fresh land at its mouth with very

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

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

great rapidity is certain, from the testimony of various writers besides Herodotus. Thucydides (ii. 102), Scylax (Peripl. p. 31), and Strabo (i. p. 87), all speak in equally strong terms on the subject. Thucydides even conjectures that in a short space of time all the Echinades would become portions of the continent. This prediction has failed; and at present, owing probably to the projection of the coast and the sweep of the current round it, the advance of the land is very slow and gradual. (Leake, iii. p. 570.) So far as appears, no island has been added to the shore since the time of Strabo. Col. Leake indeed says that he could only find two heights in this vicinity which seemed to him to have once been islands, viz., the peninsula of Kurtzolari (Strabo's Artemita), and a small hill opposite Petalá; but it may be questioned whether the representation of Kiepert (Blatt. xiii.) does not give a truer idea of the actual growth of the land.