the whole once contained seventy-eight rectangles. Each of these rectangles contains an elliptical ring, or 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 fiftysecond 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 . 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° 40', 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 basso-relievo, 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 When Strabo visited Egypt, the Myos Hormos seems to have superseded Berenice; but the latter, in the later age of Pliny, was again preferred to its rival.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 278 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. "Many other ports," says Mr. Wilkinson, "the Portus Multi of Pliny, occur along the coast, particularly between Berenice and Kossayr; but though they all have landmarks to guide boats in approaching their rocky entrances, none of them have any remains of a tower, or the vestiges of habitations." They teach the beholder the important lesson, that nothing on earth is enduring; and that "He builds too low, who builds below the skies."-Young. TENTYRA. 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 buildings are still to be seen there. The inhabitants of this city * Myos Hormos ceded its place to this town, which was afterwards called Philoteras, and was resorted to after the Arab conquest. 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 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 croco dile; but Seneca more justly ascribes their power over it to their temerity in facing and attacking this dangerous crea ture. Their power over the crocodile is attested by one of the marbles of the Townley Collection in the British Mu seum, 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, which may be compared with that at Denderah for preservation, and which is generally attributed to the age of the Ptolemies. The inhabitants of Apollinopolis, it is said, rivalled the Tentyrites in their enmity to, and abhorrence of the crocodile. LATOPOLIS. This city was called Latopolis from the fish latus, which was worshipped in that city. About three miles to the N.N.W. of the present town of Esne are to be seen the ruins of an ancient temple, which Pococke supposes to have been the temple of Pallas, and the fish latus at Latopolis, where they were both worshipped. Within this temple, says this traveller, are three stories of hieroglyphics of men, about three feet high, and at one end the lowest figures are as large as life; one of them is adorned with the head of the ibis. The ceiling is curiously adorned with all sorts of animals, and painted in beautiful colors. OMBOS. This city, according to ancient geographers, stood to the south of Thebes. It is identified with Comombo, or "The Hill of Ombo," where the ruins of an ancient temple are still to be seen. The inhabitants of Ombos, as before hinted, were famous for the worship of the crocodile. Elian says, they fed them in their ponds, where they became so tame as to obey them when called. PHYLE. This city stood about twelve miles south of Syene, in an island of the same name, not above a quarter of a mile long, and half a quarter broad. The island of Phyla was deemed sacred from an opinion, according to Diodorus, that Osiris was buried there; and the ruins of a magnificent temple are still found on the island. It appears from the notitia, that the Romans had a garrison at Phyla, which was the most southern city of all Egypt. Between this place and Syene is the lesser cataract, and the greater at a small distance from Pselca, a town in Ethiopia. Cicero says, that the people who lived near the lesser cataract were all deaf from the noise which the river made in falling from the high mountains. But this is an error; for the fall is in no part above seven or eight feet, and, therefore, could have little effect on the organs of hearing. CANOPUS. This city stood on the coast near the outlet of the western or Canopic branch of the Nile. It was forty miles from Alexandria by land, with which it was connected by a canal. In the time of Strabo, it contained a great temple of Serapis. It is said to have been built by the Spartans, on their return from the Trojan war, and to have taken its name from Canopus, the pilot of Menelaus, who died, and was buried in this place. The city was noted for the lewd and dissolute diversions which the Alexandrians indulged themselves in here, whence Seneca writes in one of his epistles thus: "No one, thinking of a retreat, would choose Canopus, though a man may be good and honest even at Canopus." These are all the cities of which we can give any detailed information. Others are mentioned by ancient writers, but for the most part they are known only by name. And of those we have described, the reader will have observed that little remains to testify their pre-existence. They have mouldered into dust, and the plough has gone over their site, or other cities or towns and villages have been erected on their ruins; thus bearing mournful evidence to the truth of the words of the Grecian sage, that “Nothing is lasting on the world's great stage.” All sublunary enjoyments imitate the changeableness, as well as feel the influence of the planets they are under.. Time, like a river, carries them all away with a rapid course. They swim above the stream for a little while, but they are quickly swallowed up by the waves, and seen no more. The very cities men build for their habitations, and the monuments they raise to perpetuate their names, consume and moulder away, and proclaim their own mortality, as well as testify that of others. But there are enjoyments indestructible in their nature, and endless in their duration ! There is a city whose foundations can never be shaken, and which God hath prepared for them that love him! Like the stars and orbs above, which shine with undiminished lustre, and move with the same unwearied motion, with which they did from the first date of their creation, these enjoyments are ever full, fresh, and entire; and they will abide when sun, and moon, and nature itself, shall be employed by Providence no more. The righteous shall appear in the eternal city, when the earth and all that is therein shall have been consumed, and enjoy one perpetual and everlasting day-a day commensurate to the unlimited eternity of God himself. "There is a place beyond that flaming hill, From whence their stars their thin appearance shed; A place beyond all place, where never ill Nor impure thought was ever harboured; But saintly heroes are for ever said To keep an everlasting sabbath's rest; Still wishing that of which they're still possessed, Enjoying but one joy-but one of all joys best."-Giles Fletcher. |