Herakleopolis, called Hininsu in Egyptian and the cuneiform inscriptions, was the capital of a nome which the Greek writers describe as an island. It was, in fact, enclosed on all sides by the water. On the east is the Nile; on the west the Bahr Yûsuf, itself probably an old channel of the river; northward a canal unites the two great streams, while southward another canal (or perhaps a branch of the river) once did the same in the neighbourhood of Ahnas. Strabo still speaks of it as a great “island” which he passed through on his way to the Fayyûm from the north. The route followed by Strabo must have been that already traversed by Herodotos. He too must have passed through the island of Hininsu on his way to the Fayyûm, and his scheme of Egyptian chronology ought to contain evidence of the fact. And this is actually the case. Mykerinos, he teaches us, was succeeded by a king named Sasykhis or Asykhis, who built not only the eastern propylon of the temple of Ptah at Memphis, but also a brick pyramid, about which, of course, his guides had a characteristic story to tell him. That the story was of Greek origin is shown by the inscription, which they professed had been engraved by order of the Pharaoh, but which only a Greek could have invented. The brick pyramid must have been that of Illahûn. The two brick pyramids of Dahshûr would have been invisible from the river, and even to a visitor on the spot the state of ruin in which they are would have made them seem of little consequence. His attention would have been wholly absorbed by the massive pyramids of stone at the foot of which they stand. The brick pyramid of Howâra, again, cannot be the one meant by Herodotos. It formed part of the buildings connected with the Labyrinth, the size and splendour of which overshadowed in his eyes all the rest. There remains, therefore, only the brick pyramid of Illahûn, by the side of which, as we have seen, the voyage of Herodotos would have led him.