The Nile first enters the Egyptian territory at Syene[3542], on the frontiers of Æthiopia; that is the name of a peninsula a mile in circumference, upon which Castra[3543] is situate, on the side of Arabia. Opposite to it are the four islands of Philæ[3544], at a distance of 600 miles from the place where the Nile divides into two channels; at which spot, as we have already stated, the Delta, as it is called, begins. This, at least, is the distance, according to Artemidorus, who also informs us that there were in it 250 towns; Juba says, however, that the distance between these places is 400 miles. Aristocreon says that the distance from Elephantis to the sea is 750 miles; Elephantis[3545] being an inhabited island four miles below the last Cataract, sixteen[3546] beyond Syene, 585 from Alexandria, and the extreme limit of the navigation of Egypt. To such an extent as this have the above-named authors[3547] been mistaken! This island is the place of rendezvous for the vessels of the Æthiopians; they are made to fold up[3548], and the people carry them on their shoulders whenever they come to the Cataracts. CHAP. 11.—THE CITIES OF EGYPT. Egypt, besides its boast of extreme antiquity, asserts that it contained, in the reign of King Amasis[3549], 20,000 inhabited cities: in our day they are still very numerous, though no longer of any particular note. Still however we find the following ones mentioned as of great renown—the city of Apollo[3550]; next, that of Leucothea[3551]; then Great Diospolis[3552], otherwise Thebes, known to fame for its hundred gates; Coptos[3553], which from its proximity to the Nile, forms its nearest emporium for the merchandise of India and Arabia; then the town of Venus[3554], and then another town of Jupiter[3555]. After this comes Tentyris[3556], below which is Abydus[3557], the royal abode of Memnon, and famous for a temple of Osiris[3558], which is situate in Libya[3559], at a distance from the river of seven miles and a half. Next to it comes Ptolemais[3560], then Panopolis[3561], and then another town of Venus[3562], and, on the Libyan side, Lycon[3563], where the mountains form the boundary of the province of Thebais. On passing these, we come to the towns of Mercury[3564], Alabastron[3565], the town of Dogs[3566], and that of Hercules already mentioned[3567]. We next come to Arsinoë[3568], and Memphis[3569], which has been previously mentioned; between which last and the Nome of Arsinoïtes, upon the Libyan side, are the towers known as the Pyramids, the Labyrinth[3570] on Lake Mœris, in the construction of which no wood was employed, and the town of Crialon[3571]. Besides these, there is one place in the interior, on the confines of Arabia, of great celebrity, the City of the Sun[3572].