HKB
of Arabia. These, before they can quit their own region, they overcome in the air, and then devour them. This bird, we are told, produces its young through its mouth.
Egypt also produces innumerable quantities of serpents, destructive beyond all other creatures. Basilisks, amphisbænas,[136] scytalæ, acontiæ, dipsades, vipers, and many others. The asp is the largest and most beautiful of all; but that never, of its own accord, quits the Nile.
There are also in this country many things exceedingly worthy of observation, of which it is a good time now to mention a few. Everywhere there are temples of great size. There are seven marvellous pyramids, the difficulty of building which, and the length of time consumed in the work, are recorded by Herodotus. They exceed in height anything ever constructed by human labour, being towers of vast width at the bottom and ending in sharp points.
And their shape received this name from the geometricians because they rise in a cone like fire (+pyr+). And huge as they are, as they taper off gradually, they throw no shadow, in accordance with a principle of mechanics.
There are also subterranean passages, and winding retreats, which, it is said, men skilful in the ancient mysteries, by means of which they divined the coming of a flood, constructed in different places lest the memory of all their sacred ceremonies should be lost. On the walls, as they cut them out, they have sculptured several kinds of birds and beasts, and countless other figures of animals, which they call hieroglyphics.
There is also Syene, where at the time of the summer solstice the rays surrounding upright objects do not allow the shadows to extend beyond the bodies. And if any one fixes a post upright in the ground, or sees a man or a tree standing erect, he will perceive that their shadow is consumed at the extremities of their outlines. This also happens at Meroe, which is the spot in Ethiopia nearest to the equinoctial circle, and where for ninety days the shadows fall in a way just opposite to ours, on account of which the natives of that district are called Antiscii.[137]
But as there are many other wonders which would go beyond the plan of our little work, we must leave these to men of lofty genius, and content ourselves with relating a few things about the provinces.
XVI.
§ 1. In former times Egypt is said to have been divided into three provinces: Egypt proper, the Thebais, and Libya, to which in later times two more have been added, Augustamnica, which has been cut off from Egypt proper, and Pentapolis, which has been detached from Libya.
Thebais, among many other cities, can boast especially of Hermopolis, Coptos, and Antinous, which Hadrian built in honour of his friend Antinous. As to Thebes, with, its hundred gates, there is no one ignorant of its renown.
In Augustamnica, among others, there is the noble city of Pelusium, which is said to have been founded by Peleus, the father of Achilles, who by command of the gods was ordered to purify himself in the lake adjacent to the walls of the city, when, after having slain his brother Phocus, he was driven about by horrid images of the Furies; and Cassium, where the tomb of the great Pompey is, and Ostracine, and Rhinocolura.
In Libya Pentapolis is Cyrene, a city of great antiquity, but now deserted, founded by Battus the Spartan, and Ptolemais, and Arsinoë, known also as Teuchira, and Darnis, and Berenice, called also Hesperides.
And in the dry Libya, besides a few other insignificant towns, there are Parætonium, Chærecla, and Neapolis.
Egypt proper, which ever since it has been united to the Roman empire has been under the government of a prefect, besides some other towns of smaller importance, is distinguished by Athribis, and Oxyrynchus, and Thmuis, and Memphis.