But in the last instance, when he spoke of the Pyramids of Saccara, or that great multitude of Pyramids southward, he said they were between Memphis and the Arsinoite nome; and so they are, placing Memphis at Metrahenny.
For Ptolemy gives Memphis 29° 50´ in latitude, and the Arsinoite nome 29° 30´ and there is 8´ of longitude betwixt them. Therefore the Arsinoite nome cannot be to the west, either of Geeza or Metrahenny; the Memphitic nome extends to the westward, to that part of Libya called the Scythian Region; and south of the Memphitic nome is the Arsinoite nome, which is bounded on the westward by the same part of Libya.
To prove that the latter opinion of Pliny should outweigh the former one, Dr Shaw cites [86]Diodorus Siculus, who says Memphis was most commodiously situated in the very key, or inlet of the country, where the river begins to divide itself into several branches, and forms the Delta.
I cannot conceive a greater proof of a man being blinded by attachment to his own opinion, than this quotation. For Memphis was in lat. 29° 50´, and the point of the Delta was in 30°, and this being the latitude of Geeza, it cannot be that of Memphis. That city must be sought for ten or eleven miles farther south.
If, as Dr Shaw supposes, it was nineteen miles round, and that it was five or six miles in breadth, its greatest breadth would probably be to the river. Then 10 and 6 make 16, which will be the latitude of Metrahenny, according to [87]Dr Shaw’s method of computation.
But then it cannot be said that Geeza is either in the key or inlet of the country; all to the westward of Geeza is plain, and desert, and no mountain nearer it on the other side than the castle of Cairo.
Dr Shaw[88] thinks that this is further confirmed by Pliny’s saying that Memphis was within fifteen miles of the Delta. Now if this was really the case, he suggests a plain reason, if he relies on ancient measures, why Geeza, that is only ten miles, cannot be Memphis.
If a person, arguing from measures, thinks he is intitled to throw away or add, the third part of the quantity that he is contending for, he will not be at a great stress to place these ancient cities in what situation he pleases.
Nor is it fair for Dr Shaw to suppose quantities that never did exist; for Metrahenny, instead of [89]forty, is not quite twenty-seven miles from the Delta; such liberties would confound any question.
The Doctor proceeds by saying, that heaps of ruins [90]alone are not proof of any particular place; but the agreeing of the distances between Memphis and the Delta, which is a fixed and standing boundary, lying at a determinate distance from Memphis, must be a proof beyond all exception[91].