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Rollin. Hift. Vol. I.

Facing Part1 Pag.1.

inv etdelin

Lebas. Je.

ANTIQUITIES OF EGYPT.

Lublished Febr. 1754, by J&P Knapton.

PART the FIRST.

THE

DESCRIPTION

OF

EGYPT:

WITH AN

ACCOUNT of whatever is most curious and ree markable in that country.

E

GYPT comprehended anciently, within limits that were not of a very wide extent, a prodigious number of cities, and an incredible multitude of inhabitants.

It is bounded on the east by the Red-Sea and the Ifthmus of Suez; on the fouth by Ethiopia, on the weft by Libya, and on the north by the Mediterranean. The Nile runs from fouth to north, thro the whole country, about two hundred leagues in length. This country is inclofed on each fide with a ridge of mountains, which very often leave, between the foot of the hills and the river Nile, a tract of ground of not above half a day's journey in length, and fometimes lefs.

'Tis related that under Amafis, there were twenty thousand inhabited cities in Egypt, Herod. VOL. I.

.

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Strabo,
Lib. 17.
P. 787.

Hom. Il.

ON the weft-fide, the plain grows wider in fome places, and extends to twenty-five or thirty leagues. The greatest breadth of Egypt is from Alexandria to Damiata, being about fifty leagues.

ANCIENT Egypt may be divided into three principal parts; Upper Egypt, otherwife called Thebais, which was the moft fouthern part; Middle Egypt, or Heptanomis, fo call'd from the feven Nomi or districts it contain'd; Lower Egypt which included what th Greeks call Delta, and all the country as far as the Red-Sea, and along the Mediterranean to Rhinocolura, or Mount Cafius. Under Sefoftris, all Egypt became one kingdom, and was divided into thirty-fix governments or Nomi; ten in Thebais, ten in Delta, and fixteen in the country between both.

THE cities of Syene and Elephantina divided Egypt from Ethiopia; and in the days of Auguftus were as bounds to the Roman Empire. Clauftra olim Romani Imperii, Tacit. Annal. Lib. 2. Cap. 61.

Tmight

CHAP. I.

THEBA IS.

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HEBES, from whence Thebais had its name, might vie with the nobleft cities in the univerfe. Its hundred gates celebrated by Homer, are 1. v. 381. univerfally known; and acquir'd it the furname of Hecatonpylos, to diftinguish it from another Thebes Strab.Lib. lying in Boeotia. It was as large as populous; and 17.p.816. according to history, could fend out at once two hundred chariots, and ten thousand fighting-men at each of its gates. The Greeks and Romans have ceAnn. Lib. lebrated its magnificence and grandeur, though they 2. c. 60. beheld its ruins only, fo august were the remains of this city.

Tacit.

Theve

IN Thebes, now call'd Sayd, have been discover'd not's tra- temples and palaces which are ftill almost entire, adorn'd with innumerable columns and ftatues, One

vels.

palace

palace efpecially is admir'd, the remains whereof feem to have exifted purely to eclipfe the glory of the most pompous edifices. Four walks extending farther than the eye can fee, and bounded on each fide with fphinxes, compofed of materials as rare and extraordinary as their fize is remarkable, serve for avenues to four porticos, whofe height is amazing to behold. Befides, they who give us the defcription of this wonderful edifice, had not time to go round it § and are not fure that they faw above half: however, what they had a fight of, was aftonishing. A hall, which in all appearance ftood in the middle of this ftately palace, was fupported by an hundred and twenty pillars fix fathoms round, of a proportionable heighth and intermix'd with obelisks, which so many ages have not been able to demolish. Painting had display'd all her art and magnificence in this edifice. The colours themselves, that is things which fooneft. feel the injury of time, ftill hold amidst the ruins of this wonderful ftructure, and preferve their beauty and luftre; fo happily could the Egyptians imprint a character of immortality on all their works. Strabo, Lib. 17. who was on the fpot, defcribes a temple he faw in P. 805Egypt, very much refembling this I have been fpeaking of.

THE fame author, defcribing the curiofities of p. 816. Thebais, fpeaks of a very famous ftatue of Memnon, the remains whereof he had feen. 'Tis faid that this ftatue, when the beams of the rifing fun first fhone upon it in the morning, gave an articulate found And indeed Strabo himself was an ear-witnefs of this; but then he doubts whether the found came from the ftatue.

Germanicus aliis quoque miraculis intendit animum, quorum præcipua fuere Memnonis

B 2

Saxea Effigies, ubi radiis folis
icta eft, vocalem fonum reddens,
&c. Tacit. Ann. I. 2. c. 61.

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