The war with the Greeks did not, however, put a stop to pilgrimages from the west, but the travellers now seem to have been obliged to pass by way of Egypt. The geographer, Dicuil, in his treatise _De Mensura Orbis Terræ_, which he wrote at a very advanced age, in 825, tells us, when speaking of Egypt, that when a youth at school in France, he heard a monk named Fidelis give an account of his travels in Egypt and the Holy Land, to his master, Suibneus, and, from the accuracy with which he cites it, he must have taken notes at the time. He says, that Fidelis went with a party of pilgrims, clerks and laymen, who sailed direct to the mouth of the Nile, no doubt to Alexandria. Proceeding up the Nile a long way, they were struck with astonishment at the sight of the seven "barns" (_horrea_), built by Joseph, according to the number of the years of abundance, which looked at a distance like mountains, four in one place, and three in another. Curiosity led them to visit the group of three, and near them they found a lion, and eight men and women, all lying dead; "the lion had slain them by its strength, and they had killed the lion with their spears and swords, for the places occupied by both these groups of barns are deserts." They found that these buildings, in their whole elevation, were of stone; at the bottom they were square, in the upper part round, and twisted at the summit in a spire. Fidelis measured the side of one from one angle to the other, and found it to be four hundred feet. Then, entering their ships in the river Nile, they navigated direct to the entrance of the Red Sea, where they entered a port, not far to the east of which was the spot where Moses passed on dry land. Fidelis wished to go to this place, where he expected to see the traces of Pharaoh's chariot wheels, but he could not prevail with the sailors to turn away from their own course. He observed, however, that the sea appeared there to be about six miles across. They sailed thence, without loss of time, along the western part of the Red Sea, or that part which extends itself in a gulf or bay far to the north. From thence we are left to suppose that they proceeded to Palestine[7]. The barns of Joseph were of course the pyramids, with respect to the form of the upper part of which the pilgrim might easily have been deceived; but it will be at once evident to any one acquainted with the geography of Egypt, that the channel by which he passed in a ship from the Nile to the Red Sea, was the ancient canal of Hadrian. This canal is said to have been repaired, and rendered navigable by the Arabs, not long after they had rendered themselves masters of Egypt, but we know that it was finally blocked up by the khalif Abu Giafar Almansor, in 767, to hinder provisions from being sent to the people of Mecca and Medina, who had revolted against his authority. It was therefore previous to this date that Fidelis visited Egypt.