CHAP. XIX. EGYPTUS AND THE REMAINDER OF AFRICA. A. G. Plate XXII. ÆGYPTUS (Pl. XXII.) is bounded on the west by Marmarica and the deserts of Libya, on the north by the Mediterranean, on the east by the Sinus Arabicus, or Red Sea, and a line drawn in a north-east direction from Arsinoe, or Suez, to Rhinocolura, or El-Arish, which separates it from Arabia, and on the south by Æthiopia. It is one of the most antient countries known, memorable both in sacred and profane history, and the mother of ali the arts and sciences of the antient world. Egypt was governed from time immemorial by kings, the earliest of whom recorded in Scripture had the general name of Pharaoh. It is called in Scripture Misraim (traces of which are still clearly to be found in its modern Turkish appellation of Misr), from its first king, one of the sons of Ham, B. C. 2188: it was conquered by Cambyses, B. C. 525, afterwards subject to its native kings, and again to the Persians, till, after the death of Alexander, it was made into a kingdom again by Ptolemy, one of his generals, B.C. 323, and continued under the government of the Ptolemies, till after the battle of Actium, and the death of Cleopatra, when it was reduced by Augustus into a Roman province, B. C. 31, A. U. c. 723. The original natives are called Copts, to distinguish them from the Arabs and Turks; and in the proper modification of this word, Kypt, we can plainly discover the elements of the antient classical term Ægyptus. Except on the coast, there are few positions but those on the bank of the Nile, whose annual inundations fertilize the adjacent country and are the source of its prosperity. Egypt is divided into Ægyptus Inferior, or Egypt towards the sea, reaching as far southward as the commencement of the Delta. Below this was a district called Heptanomis, as containing seven of those Nomes, or Prefectures, into fifty-three of which the whole country was divided. Still further south was Ægyptus Superior, called also Thebais, from the great city Thebes in this district. Ægyptus Inferior extends along the sea from Parætonium, westward of the Sinus Plinthinetes, or Arabs' Gulf, to the Sirbonis Palus, or Sirbonian Bog, and even somewhat beyond it. The famous city of Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great, B. C. 332, the capital of Egypt, stood on the western side of the Delta, or large triangular island formed by the Nile, which comprised almost the whole of Ægyptus Inferior. Here was the celebrated library, consisting of 700,000 volumes, which is said, but without any very positive proof, to have been destroyed by the Saracens, at the command of the caliph Omar. Alexandria, before the discovery of the passage round Africa by the Cape of Good Hope, was the great mart for all the merchandise between Europe and the East Indies, which was transported from thence to Arsinoe, or Suez, at the top of the Red Sea, and so to India. The famous Trajani Canalis, an antient Egyptian work restored by Trajan, led from the Sinus Heroopolitanus at Arsinoe to the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and was intended to facilitate this commerce. It may still be traced through a great part of its course. Arsinoe was called by Cleopatra after her own name, Cleopatris. The island of Pharos, which had a celebrated lighthouse, was joined to the continent by a dyke, or causeway, called from its length the Heptastadium. On the south-eastern side of the city was the lake Mareotis *, or Mariout. At the western mouth of the Nile, a little east of Alexandria, was Canopus †, whence that branch is called the Canopic, now Maadi. Near to it was a city called Nicopolis, built in commemoration of a victory obtained by Augustus over Antony. The next mouth of the Nile is called Bolbitinum Ostium, where is now Raschid, or, as the Europeans call it, Rosetta. In the interior of the Delta, nearly below Rosetta, was Sais, now Sa, antiently the capital of Lower Egypt. The Sebennytic mouth of the Nile, now lost, was so called from Sebennytus, an inland city, now Semenud, situated at the point where this branch left the Phatniticum Ostium. This latter was one of the principal channels of the river, and fell into the Mediterranean at Tamiathis, or Damiata. The Mendesian mouth was so called from Mendes, now Ashmur-Tahrah; the Tanitic from Tanis, the Zoan of the Scriptures, now San. The eastern branch of the Nile was called the Pelusiotic, from the strong city of Pelusium, now Tireh, one of the keys of Egypt at its mouth. These three last mouths of the Nile are now hardly traceable, being lost in the lake Menzaleh. East of Pelusium is Mount Casius, and east of this the Palus Sirbonis, or Sirbonian Bog, now called Sebakel Bardoil. Here Typhon, the murderer of Osiris, is fabled to have perished; and the *The wine made in its vicinity was celebrated. Mentemque lymphatam Mareotico. Hor. Od. I. xxxvii. 14. † Hence Canopus, from its vicinity to Alexandria, was called Pellæan. Nam Pellæi gens Virg. Georg. IV. 287. * country being covered with deep and moving sands is called Al-Giofar, and has always rendered the approach to Egypt on this side very difficult and dangerous to an invading enemy. North-east of the Sirbonis Palus is Rhinocolura†, now El-Arish, the remotest eastern limit of Egypt and of Africa. At about an equal distance between Pelusium, the apex of the Delta, and the western branch of the Sinus Arabicus, is Heroopolis, now perhaps Aboukesheyd, which gave to that branch the name of the Sinus Heroopoliticus; it was the residence of the antient shepherd kings of Egypt. South-west of it, the Jews had a city called Onion, and a temple which continued from the time of Onias, who built and called it after his own name, to that of Vespasian, a period of 243 years. Onias was nephew to Menelaus, and the rightful successor to the priesthood of Jerusalem, but being rejected by Antiochus Eupator, who made Alcimus high priest, he fled to Egypt, and persuaded Ptolemy Philometor to let him build this temple there, about 173 years B. C. At the very apex of the Delta was Heliopolis, or On, the city of the sun, probably the Rameses of Scripture, built together with Pithom, or Phthumos, by the captive Israelites. This eastern portion of the Delta was the land of Goshen. A little below Heliopolis was the Egyptian Babylon, probably built during the time of the Persian power in Egypt; it occupied the site of Old Cairo. In Heptanomis, on the western bank of the Nile, fifteen miles south of the Delta, was the renowned city of Memphis, the antient metropolis of all Egypt. Near it are A gulph profound as that Sirbonian bog Pur. Lost, Book II. † So called, according to the story, from the noses of the inhabitants having been cut off by the Ethiopians for their bad faith Strab. XVI. p. 759. those stupendous and immortal works, the Pyramids; the largest of these is, at the lowest, 481 feet in perpendicular height, and covers eleven acres of ground; it is built of hewn stones, the smallest not being less than 30 feet in length. The pyramids are thought to have been intended for royal sepulchres: they are of antiquity so remote that their foundation is utterly unknown. South-west of Memphis is Arsinoe, at a little distance from the Nile, to be distinguished from the Arsinoe upon the Sinus Heroopoliticus. It was also called Crocodilopolis, and is now Feium, near the lake Moris, at the south end of which was the celebrated labyrinth, which contained 3000 chambers; 1500 above and as many below, in which the kings and sacred crocodiles were buried: it contained twelve principal halls, built by as many kings, and its ruins are still very magnificent. Another Moris was a canal (now called Bahr-Joseph) running north and south below that already described, which was excavated by human industry, being 3600 stadia in circuit, and having apparently served as a communication between the Nile and the lake Moris. Considerably to the west, in the midst of the sands of the Libyan Desert, was a small and beautiful spot, or Oasis, as it is called, refreshed by streams and shade, and luxuriant with verdure, in which was the celebrated temple of Jupiter Hammon, said to have been founded by Bacchus, in gratitude to his father Jupiter, who appeared to him in the form of a ram, and showed him a fountain, when himself and his army were perishing with thirst. Here was the Fons Solis, whose waters were cold at noon and hot at night*, and the antient and muchfamed oracle, so difficult and dangerous of access through the Libyan Deserts, consulted by Alexander the Great, Esse apud Ammonis fanum fons luce diurna Lucret. VI. 848. |