Histories

By this reckoning, then, the seaboard of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt will be four hundred and fifty miles in length. Inland from the sea as far as Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis, Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is a wide land, all flat and watery and marshy. From the sea up to Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis is a journey about as long as the way from the altar of the twelve gods at Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens to the temple of Olympian Zeus at Pisa [21.65,37.65] (Perseus)Pisa.

If a reckoning is made, only a little difference of length, not more than two miles, will be found between these two journeys; for the journey from Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens to Pisa [21.65,37.65] (Perseus) Pisa is two miles short of two hundred, which is the number of miles between the sea and Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis.

Beyond and above Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis, Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is a narrow land. For it is bounded on the one side by the mountains of Arabian Peninsula [45,25] (region (general)), AsiaArabia, which run north to south, always running south towards the sea called the Red Sea. In these mountains are the quarries that were hewn out for making the pyramids at Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, AfricaMemphis. This way, then, the mountains run, and end in the places of which I have spoken; their greatest width from east to west, as I learned by inquiry, is a two months' journey, and their easternmost boundaries yield frankincense.

Such are these mountains. On the side of Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya, Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is bounded by another range of rocky mountains among which are the pyramids; these are all covered with sand, and run in the same direction as those Arabian hills that run southward.

Beyond Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis, there is no great distance—in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt, that is:[*](w(s ei)=nai ai)gu/ptou; so much of the Nile valley being outside Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt. But it is possible that the words may mean “no great distance, for Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt,” i.e. no great distance relatively to the size of the country.) the narrow land has a length of only fourteen days' journey up the river. Between the aforesaid mountain ranges, the land is level, and where the plain is narrowest it seemed to me that there were no more than thirty miles between the Arabian mountains and those that are called Libyan. Beyond this Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is a wide land again. Such is the nature of this country.