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under several names in Scripture. The Hebrew name for it was Bethshemesh, or "house of the sun," which, or "city of the sun," is the meaning of all the names given to the place, except that of Aven, or Bethaven, Ezek. xxx. 17, Hos. x. 5, which means "vanity," or "house of vanity," a nick-name the Hebrews were accustomed to apply to noted places of idolatrous worship. The Greek name of the place was Heliopolis, by which name the Septuagint version renders it, a rendering that has not been disputed.

The city derived its name from the worship of the sun, to which a celebrated temple was here consecrated. It was a famous seat of the Egyptian science and learning. Herodotus says, that the Heliopolitans were reckoned the wisest of the Egyptians; and, according to Berosus, it was the city of Moses, which well accounts for his scriptural character, that he "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," Acts vii. 22. It is certain that in the college of priests at this place, Eudoxus, Plato, and Herodotus received their instruction in astronomy, philosophy, and history; and in all that learning of the Egyptians which sacred and profane writers concur in celebrating.

Very little is known of the history of Heliopolis. Josephus says, that it was given to the Israelites for a habitation when they first went down into Egypt; but this is not mentioned in Scripture. Its destruction was foretold by the prophets, Jeremiah, chap. xliii. 13, and Ezekiel, chap. xxx. 17; which predictions were probably accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar.

Heliopolis was situated in the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, about five miles below the point of the ancient Delta. Its form and size may be inferred from the remaining mounds of the wall of circuit, from which it would appear to have been of an irregular shape, and in its extent not exceeding 3,750 by 2,870 feet. The houses stood on the north side, covering a space of about 575,000 feet; to the south of which stood the temple of the sun. There are now no ruins of ancient buildings, unless the mounds be considered such, but there are still existing many fragments of the materials employed in their construction. An obelisk still stands entire upon the spot, which, from its great antiquity, has received much attention from the learned. In the adjoining villages, there are many fragments of antiquity, which have evidently been removed from thence, and one standing in its immediate vicinity bears the name of Matarieh, signifying "fresh water;" which name is taken from a spring of excellent water, supposed to be the same as "the fountain of the sun of ancient days.

PITHOM AND RAMESES.

Pithom and Rameses are mentioned, Exod. i. 11, as having been built by the Hebrews, for the Egyptian monarch under whom they were oppressed, for "treasure" or store cities. Authors vary in their opinions concerning the sites of Pithom and Rameses. Benjamin of Tudela, in the twelfth century, was informed by the Jews that the latter was the same as Heliopolis; but

Niebuhr thinks that it lay to the north-west of it, about four leagues from Cairo, in the way to Suez, where there is a heap of ruins, called Tel el Jhûd, or Tourbet el Jhud. As the land of Goshen is also called "the land of Rameses," we may conclude, that the town of Rameses was in that district, and that it either gave or received from it, its name. We may mention, that some authors conceive that Pithom and Rameses were the names of two kings of Egypt, but this is by no means a well founded theory.

"SIN," OR PELUSIUM.

In Arabic, the term "sin" signifies mud, and was therefore the same as Pelusium, from pelos, mud. By the prophet Ezekiel, who predicted its overthrow, chap. xxx. 15, it is called "the strength of Egypt," and by Suidas, the “key of Egypt," or, its strong barrier on the side of Syria and Arabia. But notwithstanding its strength, according to the prediction of the prophet, it is laid prostrate by the hand of time and the destroyer.

PIBESETH, OR BUBASTUS.

By the Septuagint, Pibeseth is regarded as the famous city of Bubastis, on the Pelusian branch of the Nile; whence this branch, which is the eastern, was indiscriminately called the Bubastic or the Pelusiac. The city derived its name from a magnificent temple dedicated to the goddess Bubastis, whom Herodotus identifies with Diana. The site still bears the name of Tel Bastah, but the great mass of ruins is somewhat more than half a mile west of the Tel, at Chobrah and Heryeh. There is no edifice remaining. All is one scene of desolation, testifying at once to its ancient splendour, and to the truth of Holy Writ, which foretells its destruction. The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity,” Ezek. xxx. 17.

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The name Migdol signifies "a tower," and may have been common to several places distinguished by objects of that kind. There appears, indeed, from Scripture, to have been two cities of that name in ancient times. Thus the prophet Jeremiah represents one as belonging to Egypt Proper, see chap. xlvi. 14; and in the neighbourhood of Tahpanes, or Daphnæ. This favours the supposition of its being the present Migdol; and Bochart observes on this text, that we find the places named exactly in the order of the distance from Judea: first, Migdol, or Magdolus; secondly, Tahpanhes, or Daphnæ; thirdly,

Noph, or Memphis; and, lastly, the district of Pathros, or Thebais. We may presume this city to have been that which Herodotus mentions under that name, and which the itinerary of Antoninus reckons a little to the south of the Delta, about twelve miles from Pelusium. But this was too far distant from the Red Sea to be in the route of the Israelites when departing from Egypt; and therefore we may conclude that there was a second Migdol in Lower Egypt, towards the Red Sea, and at which the Israelites encamped. See Exod. xiv. 2.

NOPH, MENOPH, OR MEMPHIS.

Memphis was the renowned capital of Lower Egypt. On what site it stood, however, has been much disputed. Dr. Shaw, and others, contend that it must be sought at Ghizeh, nearly oppoI site to Old Cairo; but other eminent travellers and geographers, comparing the statements in ancient authors with existing appearances and traditions, have fixed its position with greater probability considerably more to the south, near the village of Metrahenny, on the western bank of the Nile. On this spot there are indications of extensive ruins in the form of mounds, channels, and blocks of granite, many of which are covered with sculptures and hieroglyphics, and which are considered, in the locality, to form the remains of Menf, or Memphis, the royal seat of the Pharaohs.

We have seen, in the article Thebes, that Memphis superseded that city as the capital of Egypt. To explain this, we would observe, that Egyptian traditions, as preserved by the Greek historians, and confirmed by modern research, state, that Upper Egypt was the first settled and brought under cultivation. From thence colonies proceeded into Middle and Lower Egypt, which became the parents of other colonies, till the whole was settled. The principal of these colonies, it would appear, soon assumed or acquired the character of independent states or kingdoms, each with its own metropolis; and Memphis seems to have been the earliest of those settlements below the Thebais, as the seat of such a state or kingdom. According to Herodotus, it was founded by Menes, the first king of Egypt, who turned the channel of the river, and built the city in the ancient bed, where the strait between the Arabian and Libyan mountains is narrowest. This statement, in the opinion of many travellers, is corroborated by the actual appearance of the river at the spot where, according to this historian, the stream was "dyked off;" namely, at 100 stades, or about twelve miles, above Memphis. Herodotus thought that the valley above Memphis, where it widens, was once a bay of the sea, but was gradually raised by the alluvions of the Nile, which also in his opinion formed the Delta. This opinion seems to have been formed by a mistake as to the meaning of a passage in Homer; but it would confirm the supposition that the Mediterranean was once much higher than at present, and that it was lowered by the disruption of the straits of Gibraltar.

At what time Memphis became the paramount metropolis of Egypt, it would be difficult to state; but as the capital of Lower Egypt, and as the

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metropolis of the country, it would appear that Noph, or Memphis, was the great city of the Pharaohs with which the Old Testament Hebrews were best acquainted, and to which there are the most frequent references in Scripture, from the time that good old Israel went down into Egypt to the days of the prophet Jeremiah. At the former date, it was, probably, the capital of that part of Egypt with which the Hebrews were most familiar; and at the latter, it still remained as the metropolis, notwithstanding that, since the reign of Psammetichus, the kings of Egypt had made Sais the usual seat of their residence.

The wealth and the glory of Memphis are spoken of by most ancient writers; but concerning the details little or nothing is recorded; and Noph is so utterly waste, according to the prediction of the prophet, Jer. xlvi. 19, that the deficiency cannot be supplied from existing remains, as at Thebes. Its magnificent temples are, however, mentioned, particularly those of Apis and Vulcan; and Diodorus describes the city as about 150 stades, or between seventeen and eighteen miles, in circumference. There are, moreover, remains of a different and not less striking kind, which denote its ancient grandeur. These are the pyramids; for the situation of Memphis, regarded as near Metrahenny, is central with respect to these far-famed structures, being as it were in the midst of them; and it is to be observed, that ancient historians usually considered the pyramids as pertaining to Memphis. Other monuments marking the city itself, save that of the mounds, a few fragments of granite, some substruction, and a colossal statue of Ramases II., there are none; so completely has the prediction of its desolation been accomplished. This desolation is the more remarkable when we consider that the glory of Memphis was only impaired by the devastations of the Persians, and that when eclipsed by Alexandria it continued to be the second city of Egypt, as recorded by Strabo, and that about as late as the time of our Saviour. The Arabian geographer, Abulfeda, notices, indeed, in the fourteenth century, the extensive remains of Menf, as still evincing the ancient importance of that renowned city. But these appear to have been employed in the erection of the more modern cities which have arisen in that part of Egypt where Memphis stood; or to have been gradually covered by the encroaching sands of the desert, or the alluvions of the Nile, so that nothing now remains of all its glory but that described.

SYENE.

Syene was the most southern city of the Thebais, bordering on Nubia. By the prophet Ezekiel, the whole extent of Egypt, from north to south, is described as "from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia," Ezek. xxix. 10; xxx. 6. Migdol, which is incorrectly rendered "tower" in our version, and which should be preserved as the proper name of the town near the Red Sea, as noticed before, was in the north of Egypt, while Syene was its southern frontier. The cataracts of the Nile, which occur above this place, and the difficult navigation of the river, forma natural boundary line; so that Syene, now called Assouan, has always been considered the frontier

town of Egypt in this direction. Strictly speaking, the boundary is formed by the mighty terraces of that peculiar reddish granite called syenite, which, shaped into peaks, stretch across the bed of the Nile, and from which the Egyptians obtained the stone so frequently employed by them in their obelisks and colossal statues.

The town of Syene retained its importance for many ages. This is certified by the ruins of works and buildings reared by the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, the Romans, and the Arabians, which are still seen on and around the site of the old town. The town Assouan, which succeeded it, so closely adjoins the old town on the north, that the northern wall of the latter forms the southern wall of the former. The scenery in this part is very striking. Madox, in his "Excursions in the Holy Land, Egypt, etc.," thus describes it: "The river is rocky here, and the navigation, by night at least, dangerous. At the pass of Assouan ruin and devastation reign around. This pass, which nature has so well fortified, seems ill treated by man. Hardly any thing was to be seen but the vast remains of the old town of Syene, with mud-built walls and hovels on every side. Rocks, forming islands, were in the middle of the stream, upon which shrubs were growing. The scene altogether was wild and forlorn. In the distance appear high mountains, or masses of stone, with trees, corn, and grass of great height, extending to the water's edge." The removal of the town is said to have occurred A. D. 1403, in consequence of a plague, which destroyed 21,000 of its inhabitants, from which fact the reader may discern the ancient and also the comparatively modern importance of the town.

ALEXANDRIA.

This renowned city of Egypt owed its origin to Alexander the Great, who, during his visit to that country, (about B.c. 332,) gave orders for its erection, betwen the sea and the Mareotic Lake. The architect was Dinocrates, a Macedonian. A large part of it was contained within the present walls, which are chiefly the work of the Arabs. One main street, about four miles in length, ran through the city from the eastern extremity to the Necropolis, or "city of the dead," at the western, and this was intersected by another main street, about one mile and a quarter in length, running nearly north, in a direction from the Mareotic Lake.

This was

to obtain the benefit of ventilation from the north winds. The main land and the isle of Pharos was connected by a dyke, called the Heptastadium, in which there was a passage for vessels, from one port to the other at each end. Over these passages there were bridges, probably of great height, since we are told that water was conveyed along this dyke to the island of Pharos. On the rocks occupied by the present Pharos, a magnificent light-house was constructed by Sostratus of Cnidus, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the height of which, report says, was 400 feet. The point opposite to the Pharos was called Lochias, and as this point was prolonged towards the Pharos along some rocks, it received the name of Acro-Lochias, or the 66 Point of Lochias." Between this point and

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the obelisks, the palace of the Ptolemies, the theatre, and various temples once stood. There were two ports; one bounded by the north-east part of the city, and the Heptastadium, called the great port, and the other called Eunostus, or "safe return." This latter also contained a small port, called Kibotos, or "the chest," because the entrance could be completely closed. No traces of this can now be discovered. canal, uniting the lake with port Eunostus, terminated in or near port Kibotos, and was nearly the south-west limit of the city. There was also a canal from the lake to the town of Canopus, situated near the mouth of the western branch of the Nile, by means of which the city was supplied with river water, which was kept in cisterns. These, it would appear, were very numerous. A Roman writer says, Nearly all Alexandria was undermined, and furnished with subterranean aqueducts, to convey the Nile water to private houses, where, after a short time, it became purified." Traces of such are now found on the site of ancient Alexandria.

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The city of Alexandria was divided into five quarters, but neither the limits nor the names of each can be assigned. The court end, or Bruchion, comprised the part between the Lochias, the site of the obelisks, and the eastern or Rosetta gate. This part contained also the museum. The part called Rhacotis, which bordered on port Eunostus, contained the great temple of Serapis, which, after the establishment of Christianity, was a grievous offence to the Christians, and as such was destroyed by Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, A.D. 390, by permission of the emperor Theodosius.

The city of Alexandria was embellished by the Ptolemies with the spoils of the more ancient towns of Egypt, and it continued to receive accessions and improvements for several centuries. At one period of time, it was the rival of Rome in magnitude, and the greatest commercial city of the earth. Like Tyre of old, it was the point of exchange for the eastern and western world. Diodorus, who visited the city just before the downfal of the empire of the Ptolemies, says, that it contained, according to the registers, more than 300,000 free citizens.

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The remains of Old Alexandria are surrounded by a double wall, flanked with lofty towers. They are an almost shapeless mass of rubbish, in which are discerned fragments of broken columns, pieces of wall, cisterns choked up with earth, pieces of pottery, glass, etc. five gateways or entrances into this enclosure. Of the two granite obelisks, called Cleopatra's Needles, one is still standing; the other is lying prostrate on the ground. These obelisks formed the entrance to the palace of Cesar, as it is called, though it is most probable they were removed from some of the ancient cities of Egypt thither. Near these obelisks is part of a tower, called, "The Tower of the Romans." About the cen-2 tre of the enclosure stands the mosque of St. Athanasius, on the site of a Christian church erected by this patriarch during the fourth century. In this mosque the beautiful SARCOPHAGUS, of Egyptian breccia, which is now in the British Museum, was discovered. The cisterns, mentioned for keeping Nile water, are still in a

great measure preserved; they consist of vaulted chambers, supported by columns which form

arcades of two or three stories. The interior walls are covered with a thick red plaster which water cannot penetrate. The level of these cisterns varies, but some of them are from fifteen to eighteen feet below the level of the sea. When

the French invaded Egypt, the number in use was 207, and there were about 100 more known to exist. The only remarkable monument between the wall and the Lake is the column called

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Pompey's Pillar.” This column stands on a mound of earth about forty feet high, which contains remains of previous constructions. According to a Greek inscription on the plinth of the base, on the west side, it appears to have been erected (though probably not for the first time) in honour of the emperor Diocletian, by a prefect of Egypt, whose name cannot be further deciphered than that it begins with P O. The foundation of the pillar appears to have been frequently examined, probably in the hope of finding treasures; it is, perhaps, owing to this cause, that the column is inclined about seven inches to the south-west. In this direction, on the other side of the canal, are some catacombs, cut in a small elevation of a sandy calcareous stone; and farther south, in the calcareous rock that faces the sea, are discerned numerous excavations, in the sides of which niches are formed. These formed part of the Necropolis of Old Alexandria. The most spacious of these excavations, which in common with the rest, communicates with the sea by a narrow passage, is about 3830 yards from the column. In the interior there is a great number of chambers and passages, which, judging from the style in which they are cut in the rock, are of Greek origin. This monument was doubtless intended for a king.

The history of this city is very remarkable. From B.C. 323 to B.C. 30, when it fell into the hands of the Romans, it was the residence of the Greek kings of Egypt, the resort of commerce, and of many foreign nations, especially Jews, and it was also the centre of the scientific knowledge of that day. Of the five wards into which this city was divided, two were entirely occupied by Jews, and they had, besides, residences dispersed in the other quarters. They enjoyed, as will be seen in the history of that period, full civil privileges, and had a prefect or governor of their own. Alexandria sustained much damage in the campaigns of Julius Cesar, B.C. 48. From B.c. 30, to the Arab conquest under Omar, A.D. 640, who, it is said, found forty thousand Jews paying tribute there, Alexandria was still a flourishing city under the Roman, and afterwards under the eastern empire. The Christian religion was early adopted there, and it became one of the strong-holds of the true faith. Clemens, Origen, Athanasius, and others of equal note in the Christian church, flourished at Alexandria. In 969, the Fatemite caliphs seized on Egypt, and built New Cairo, from which time Alexandria declined still more, and sunk to the rank of a secondary city. The discovery of the route round the Cape of Good Hope, A.D. 1497, tended still further to diminish the importance of Alexandria; so that at the

present day, the city that bears its name no longer enjoys its wonted celebrity, though it appears to have recovered in some slight degree from its downfal by a revival of its commerce. The Roman power partly restored Alexandria as the channel of commerce with the east, but when their power was broken, it ceased.

ARSINOE.

This city stood at the head of the western branch of the Red Sea, and near the termination of the canal which unites the Red Sea and the eastern branch of the Nile. It was founded by the second Ptolemy; and Pliny states, that it derived its name from Arsinoe, his sister. Its name was changed afterwards to Cleopatris. It was chosen for a sea port; but though vessels anchored there, and rode secure from the violence of the sea, its exposed situation, and the dangers they encountered in working up the narrow extremity of the gulf, rendered it less eligible for the Indian trade than either Myos Hormos, or Berenice. Its chief advantages were the convenience of establishing a communication with the Nile by a canal, and the shortness of the journey across the desert in that part. The town of Arsinoe gave its name to a nome, or one of the ancient provincial divisions of Egypt, which corresponds to the modern Faioum. The old name of the town was the "City of Crocodiles," that animal being, as we are told by Strabo, highly reverenced there.

ABY'DOS

Aby'dos was a city of Upper Egypt, the remains of which are found near two villages, Elkherbeh and Harabat, about six miles from the west bank of the Nile, N. lat. 26° 12'. The chief building which still remains is nearly covered with sand, but the interior is in good preservation. This edifice is constructed of limestone and sandstone. It is said that arches are found in the interior, similar to those of brick which Belzoni describes at Thebes. The numerous apartments in this building, and the style of decoration, show that Abydos was once a place of importance. Some conjecture that it was a royal residence. When Strabo visited Egypt, about the commencement of the Christian era, Abydos was a mere village; but he learned that the great building was called Memnoneion, or palace of Memnon, and that tradition assigned to Abydos a rank in ancient times next to Thebes. was a canal leading to the city from the river; but besides this communication with the main stream, Abydos had the advantage of standing on the large canal running northward, which is known by the name of the Bahr Youssuf.

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On an interior wall of a building at Abydos, not belonging to the great edifice, a kind of tablet, or genealogy of the early kings of Egypt, which is generally called the table of Abydos, was discovered. This tablet consists of three compartments lying horizontally one above another; and each compartment has been divided into twenty-six rectangles, so that the whole once contained seventy-eight rectangles. Each of these rectangles contains an elliptical ring, or

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cartouche, such as may be seen on the Egyptian monuments in the British Museum; and each cartouche contains various figures, which are generally supposed to indicate the names or titles of sovereigns. The lowest of the three compartments contains, in the nineteen rectangles which are complete, the title and name of Rameses the Great; the same prænomen, or title, and name, having each, probably, been repeated thirteen times in the whole twenty-six rectangles, of which seven are erased. Deducting these twenty-six, there remain in the other two compartments fifty-two rectangles. The fifty-first and fifty-second contain the title and name of a Rameses, who may be a predecessor of Rameses the Great. The cartouches preceding these are thought to be the titles of kings: this is very probable, for the forty-seventh is the same as that on the great colossal statue at Thebes, and on the entire colossal statue in the British Museum, which is Amenophis II. in Manetho's catalogue.

BERENICE.

Berenice was a port on the west side of the Red Sea, at the bottom of a bay, which is described by Strabo under the name of Acathartus. Belzoni describes the place which he takes to be the site of Berenice as being a little south of the parallel of 24°, in which D'Anville concurs. Ptolemy gives the latitude of Berenice at 23° 50', which is also the latitude of Syene. The town, according to Belzoni, measured 1,600 feet from north to south, and 2,000 from east to west. A small temple of Serapis, built of soft calcareous and sand stone, in the Egyptian style of architecture, is 102 feet long, and 43 wide. A part of the wall which was uncovered by digging was sculptured with well executed figures in bassorelievo, in the Egyptian style; on the wall hieroglyphics were also discovered.

The town of Berenice was built or restored by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who called it after the name of his mother, the wife of Lagus, or Soter. The town was very extensive, and though the harbour was neither deep nor spacious, its position in a receding gulf tended greatly to the safety of the vessels lying within it, or anchored in the bay. A road led thence direct to Coptos, furnished with the usual stations, or hydreumas; and another, which also went to the emerald mines, joined, or rather crossed it, from Apollinopolis Magna. When Strabo visited Egypt, the Myos Hormos seems to have superseded Berenice; but the latter, in the later age of Pliny, was again preferred to its rival. From both these ports the goods were taken on camels, by an almost level road across the desert to Coptos, and thence distributed over different parts of Egypt. In the time of the Ptolemies and Cesars, those suited for exportation to Europe went down the river to the city of Alexandria, where they were sold to merchants who resorted to that city at a stated season.

MYOS HORMOS.

The Myos Hormos, called also Aphrodite, and, according to Agatharchides, the Port of Venus, stood in latitude 27° 22', upon a flat coast, backed

by low mountains, distant from it about three miles, where a well called the Fons Tadnos supplied the town and ships with water. The port was more capacious than those of Berenice and Philoteras; and though exposed to the winds, it was secure against the force of a tempestuous sea. Several roads united at the gates of the town, from Berenice and Philoteras on the south, Arsinoe on the north, and from Coptos on the west; and stations supplied those who passed to and from the Nile with water and other necessaries.

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The ruins of Tentyra are supposed to be those seen at Amara, about a mile from the river Erment. It stood in the midst of a large plain, and seems to have been between three and four miles in compass. The ruins of two ancient The inhabuildings are still to be seen there. bitants of this city were famous for their enmity to the crocodile, which they endeavoured to destroy by all the means in their power. They even waged war with the worshippers of that animal, especially with the people of Ombos. To this circumstance Juvenal alludes in one of his satires. He says,

"Ombus and Tentyr, neighbouring towns, of late Broke into outrage of deep fester'd hate. A grudge in both, time out of mind, begun And mutually bequeathed from sire to son: Religious spite and pious spleen bred first This quarrel, which so long the bigots nursed. Each called the other's god a senseless stock, His own, divine; though from the self same block One carver framed them, differing but in shape; A serpent this resembling, that an ape."-Tate's Juvenal. At Rome, the Tentyrites were employed to take the crocodiles with nets out of the ponds, where they were kept as a curiosity, and to show them to the people, which they did without receiving the least harm. Some have supposed that this people possessed a natural ascendency over the crocodile; but Seneca more justly ascribes their power over it to their temerity in facing and attacking this dangerous creature. Their power over the crocodile is attested by one of the marbles of the Townley Collection in the British Museum, which is usually explained to represent an Egyptian tumbler exercising his feats on the back of a tame crocodile.

APOLLINOPOLIS.

This city is thought to have been situated where the town of Edfou (on the left bank of the Nile, in 25° N. lat.) now stands. There are still the ruins of a magnificent temple here,

• Myos Hormos ceded its place to this town, which was afterwards called Philoteras, and was resorted to after the Arab conquest.

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