Book The First. The Ancient History Of The Egyptians.
Part The First. Description of Egypt: with an Account of whatever is most curious and remarkable in that Country.
Egypt comprehended anciently, within limits of no very great extent, a prodigious number of cities,[255] and an incredible multitude of inhabitants.
It is bounded on the east by the Red-Sea and the Isthmus of Suez; on the south by Ethiopia, on the west by Libya, and on the north by the Mediterranean. The Nile runs from south to north, through the whole country, about two hundred leagues in length. This country is enclosed on each side 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,[256] and sometimes less.
On the west side, the plain grows wider in some places, and extends to twenty-five or thirty leagues. The greatest breadth of Egypt is from Alexandria to Damietta, being about fifty leagues.
Ancient Egypt may be divided into three principal parts: Upper Egypt, otherwise called Thebais, which was the most [pg 002] southern part; Middle Egypt, or Heptanomis, so called from the seven Nomi or districts it contained; Lower Egypt, which included what the Greeks call Delta, and all the country as far as the Red-Sea, and along the Mediterranean to Rhinocolura, or Mount Casius. Under Sesostris, all Egypt became one kingdom, and was divided into thirty-six governments, or Nomi; ten in Thebais, ten in Delta, and sixteen in the country between both.[257]
The cities of Syene and Elephantina divided Egypt from Ethiopia; and in the days of Augustus were the boundaries of the Roman empire: Claustra olim Romani Imperii, Tacit. Annal. Lib. ii. cap. 61.