[162] Herod. 2, 29; Strabo, p. 786. Herodotus' statements, like those of the later authorities from Eratosthenes to Strabo and Pliny, have the second, more southern, Meroe in view, the ruins of which were found at Begerauieh, above the mouth of the Atbara, some 150 miles as the crow flies to the south of Napata. They describe this Meroe as situated on an island, because the Atbara was regarded as an arm of the Nile. The ruins at Begerauieh are less important and artistic than those of Napata, the hieroglyphics are of another kind. As the Persians maintained their hold on Napata, a new metropolis of the Ethiopian kingdom obviously grew up at this place after the times of Cambyses and Darius, which adopted the name and civilization of the old.
[163] Strabo, p. 790; Diod. 1, 33.
[164] "Antiq." 2, 10.
[165] "Hymn." 26, 9.
[166] "Hymn." 2, 146.
[167] "Hymn." 7, 69.
[168] "Hymn." 3, 97.
[169] Diod. 3, 26, 33; Strabo, p. 772.
[170] Plin. "H. N." 6, 35; Strabo, p. 822.
[171] Herod. 2, 42.