1 Thevenot. vels. CHAP. II. MIDDLE EGYPT or HEPTA NOMIS. t EMPHIS was the capital of this part of M Egypt. Here were many ftately temples, efpecially that of the god Apis, who was honour'd in this city after a particular manner. I fhall fpeak of it hereafter, as well as of the pyramids which stood in the neighbourhood of this place, and rendered it fo famous. Memphis was fituated on the weft-fide of the Nile. GRAND CAIRO, which feems to have fucceeded Memphis, was built on the other fide of that river. The caftle of Cairo is one of the greateft curiofities in Egypt. It ftands on a hill without the city; has a rock for its foundation, and is furrounded with walls of a vaft height and folidity. You go up to the caftle by a way hewn out of the rock, and which is fotafy of afcent, that loaded horfes and camels get up without difficulty. The greatest rarity in this caftle is Jofeph's well, fo call'd, either because the Egyptians are pleafed with afcribing their most remarkable particulars to that great man, or because there is really fuch a tradition in the country. This is a proof at leaft, that the work in queftion is very ancient; and 'tis certainly worthy the magnificence of the most powerful kings of Egypt. This well, has as it were, two ftories, cut out of the rock to a prodigious depth. One defcends to the refervoir of water, between the two wells, by a ftair-cafe feven or eight foot broad, confifting of two hundred and twenty fteps, and fo contrived, that the oxen employed to throw up the water go down with all imaginable cafe, the defcent being scarce perceptible. well is fupplied from a fpring, which is almost dorn'done in the whole country. The oxen are a temples continually Page 5 Rollin's An. Hist. Vol. I. Egyptian Obelisks now at Rome Publish'd Febr. 1. 1754, by I. & P.Knapton. |