(1) +Myos Hormos.+—Its situation is determined by the cluster of islands now called +Jifâtîn+ [lat. 27° 12´ N., long. 33° 55´ E.] of which the three largest lie opposite an indenture of the coast of Egypt on the curve of which its harbour was situated [near Ras Abu Somer, a little north of Satâjah Island]. It was founded by Ptolemy Philadelphos B. C. 274, who selected it as the principal port of the Egyptian trade with India in preference to Arsinoê,[16] N. N. E. of Suez, on account of the difficulty and tediousness of the navigation down the Heroöpolite Gulf. The vessels bound for Africa and the south of Arabia left its harbour about the time of the autumnal equinox, when the North West wind which then prevailed carried them quickly down the Gulf. Those bound for the Malabar Coast or Ceylon left in July, and if they cleared the Red Sea before the 1st of September, they had the monsoon to assist their passage across the ocean. +Myos Hormos+ was distant from +Koptos+ [lat. 26° N.], the station on the Nile through which it communicated with Alexandria, a journey of seven or eight days along a road opened through the desert by Philadelphos. The name +Myos Hormos+ is of Greek origin, and may signify either the Harbour of the Mouse, or, more probably, of the Mussel, since the pearl mussel abounded in its neighbourhood. +Agatharkhidês+ calls it +Aphroditēs Hormos+, and Pliny +Veneris Portus+. [Veneris Portus however was probably at Sherm Sheikh, lat. 24° 36´ N. Off the coast is Wade Jemâl Island, lat. 24° 39´ N., long. 35° 8´ E., called Iambe by Pliny, and perhaps the Aphroditês Island of Ptolemy IV. v. 77.] Referring to this name Vincent says: “Here if the reader will advert to Aphroditê, the Greek title of Venus, as springing from the foam of the ocean, it will immediately appear that the Greeks were translating here, for the native term to this day is _Suffange-el-Bahri_, ‘sponge of the sea’; and the vulgar error of the sponge being the foam of the sea, will immediately account for Aphroditê.”