Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/450

 416 PLINX'S NATTJEAL HISTOBT. [Book Y, CHAP. 11. — THE CITIES OE EGYPT. Egypt, besides its boast of extreme antiquity, asserts tbat it contained, in the reign of King Amasis 20,000 inhabited cities : in our day they are still very numerous, though no longer of any particular note. Still however we find the following ones mentioned as of great renown — the city of Apollo^ ; next, that of Leucothea^ ; then Grreat Diospolis'*, otherwise Thebes, known to fame for its hundred gates ; Coptos^, which from its proximity to the Nile, forms its nearest emporium for the merchandise of India and Arabia ; then the town of Venus®, and then another town of Jupi- Apries, w'hom the Egyptians put to death. He died just before the in- vasion by Cambyses, having displayed great abihties as a ruler. 2 There was the Greater ApoUinopohs, the modem Edfoo, in the Thebaid, on the western bank of the Nile, in lat. 25° north, about thirteen miles below the lesser Cataract : its inhabitants were enemies of the cro- codile and its worshippers. The remains of two temples thex'e are con- sidered second only to the temple of Denderah as specimens of the sacred structures of Egyj^t. A Lesser ApoUinopolis was in Upper Egypt, on the western bank of the Nile, in lat. 27° north. Another Lesser Apol- linopoHs was a town of the Thebaid in the Coptite Nome, in lat. 26° north, situate between Thebes and Coptos. It was situate at the pre- sent Kuss. 3 Its site is unknown. Hardouin suggests that it is the Eilethuia of Ptolemy, the modern El-Kab. ^ " City of Jupiter," the Grreek name for Thebes, the No or No Ammon of Scripture. It stood in the centre of the Thebaid, on both banks of the Nile, above Coptos, and in the Nomos Coptites. Its ruins, which are the most magnificent in the world, enclose within their site the four villages of Camac, Luxor, Medinet Abou, and Gournou. ^ Its hieroglyphical name was Kobto, and its site is now occupied by the modern town of Kouft or Keft. It was situate in lat. 26° north, on the right bank of the Nile, about a mile from its banks. As a halting place or rather watering-place for the caravans, it was enriched by the commerce between Libya and Egypt on the one hand, and Arabia and India and Egypt on the other, the latter being carried on through the port of Berenice on the Red Sea, founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 266. In the seventh century of the Christian era, it bore for some time the name of Justinianopolis. There are a few remains of Eoman buildings to be seen on its site. ^ Also called Aphrodite or Aphroditopolis. Of this name there were several towns or cities in ancient Egypt. In Lower Egypt there was Atarbechis, thus named, and a town mentioned by Strabo in the aome of Leontopolites. In the Heptanomis or Middle Egypt there was
 * The last king of the line of Psammetichus, B.C. 569. He succeeded