So There Would Be An
Extent Of Three Thousand Six Hundred Furlongs For The Coast-Land Of
Egypt.
From thence and as far as Heliopolis inland Egypt is broad, and
the land is all flat and without
Springs of water and formed of mud:
and the road as one goes inland from the sea to Heliopolis is about
the same in length as that which leads from the altar of the twelve
gods at Athens to Pisa and the temple of Olympian Zeus: reckoning up
you would find the difference very small by which these roads fail of
being equal in length, not more indeed than fifteen furlongs; for the
road from Athens to Pisa wants fifteen furlongs of being fifteen
hundred, while the road to Heliopolis from the sea reaches that number
completely. From Heliopolis however, as you go up, Egypt is narrow;
for on the one side a mountain-range belonging to Arabia stretches
along by the side of it, going in a direction from the North towards
the midday and the South Wind, tending upwards without a break to that
which is called the Erythraian Sea, in which range are the stone-
quarries which were used in cutting stone for the pyramids at Memphis.
On this side then the mountain ends where I have said, and then takes
a turn back; and where it is widest, as I was informed, it is a
journey of two months across from East to West; and the borders of it
which turn towards the East are said to produce frankincense.
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